Stay in charge of your ingredients and make your own healthy and delicious Sicilian homemade sausages. I have for you 3 different traditional Sicilian recipes for homemade Italian sausages. These recipes are additive-free, filler-free, and preservative-free. I used only freshly ground meat of pork shoulders and pork neck, a glass of wine, and a few spices. These homemade sausages are easier to make than you think.
Sicily is very famous for its authentic Italian sausages, so we will need to share a few recipes of how to make some delicious homemade sausages. If you will go across Italy, you will find a lot of variations of the sausages.
One thing they have in common is pork meat. The only thing that will vary from region to region will be the spices and used aromatic herbs.
So, are you looking for homemade authentic Italian sausage recipes direct from Sicily? You’re on the right page.
Today, I want to share with you 3 recipes. The first will be with fennel (widely seen and loved in the south of the country, in Sicily), the second one with fresh garlic, and the last one will be a little bit spicy, with smoked paprika and chili peppers.
Actually, these sausages are easier to make than you think. You will need less than an hour to make them. I bet that after you will try these delicious sausages made by yourself, you will stop buying commercial sausages.
Ready? Let’s get started!
🥰 Why You Will Love This Authentic Recipe?
- It’s not as hard to do this recipe as it seems.
- You can prepare a larger quantity at once and freeze it.
- You know what ingredients were used in these homemade sausages and this recipe doesn’t contain any preservatives.
- You can adjust the recipe according to the needs of your family. You can control the level of fats, spices, and salt.
🏆 Tips for Success? How to Make It Better?
- If you plan to freeze the sausages, use only fresh meat that wasn’t frozen earlier.
- Do not use fresh garlic if you plan to freeze sausages. Use dried garlic instead, because fresh garlic changes its taste after freezing.
- Try to use meat that remains juicy after cooking such as chicken legs, pork, or turkey legs. If you use white meat or a completely defatted one, you risk getting dry sausages.
- Prick the sausages with a toothpick in several places, to avoid cracking the hog casings during cooking.
💡 Ideas of How to Cook These Sausages:
- You can bake the sausages in the oven with potatoes and vegetables.
- Baked Polenta with Sausages on the traybake.
- You can make a soup with orzo and Sicilian sausages.
- As a snack, you can make sausage bread rolls or some sandwiches with sausage.
- Of course, you can prepare a spicy Sicilian pizza with sausages and peppers.
- You can make a vegetable or beans stew with sausages.
- Another good option is to make Sicilian fennel sausage pasta.
⚖️ How to Scale the Recipe up and Down?
This is a simple recipe, so, just multiply or divide all ingredients proportionally.
🥘 Ingredients and Substitutes
For the Fennel Sausages:
- 1.5 lb (750 grams) of pork meat
- ⅓ cup (75 ml) of dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon (6 grams) of salt.
- ⅔ (5 grams) tablespoon of black pepper
- 3 teaspoons (6 grams) of fennel seeds
For the Garlic Sausages:
- 1.5 lb (750 grams) of pork meat
- ⅓ cup (75 ml) of dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon (6 grams) of salt.
- ⅔ (5 grams) tablespoon of black pepper
- 3 Garlic cloves, or use 2 teaspoons (6.56 grams) of powdered garlic.
For the Pepper Sausages:
- 1.5 lb (750 grams) of pork meat
- ⅓ cup (75 ml) of dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon (6 grams) of salt.
- ⅔ (5 grams) tablespoon of black pepper
- 3 teaspoons (7 grams) of Smoked paprika.
- 1 ⅓ teaspoon (1-3 grams) of Chili Powder. Adjust to your taste.
Ingredients Swap?
- Meat. You can replace pork with other meat you prefer such as beef, lamb, chicken, and turkey.
- Wine. You can partially or completely replace the white wine with sparkling water.
- Spices. You can change them depending on your taste. You might as well just use pepper and salt. Or you can use aromatic herbs such as sage, rosemary, or basil. I would suggest using only dried herbs. Another spice that would fit perfectly is coriander seeds. Or if you are a fan of oriental flavors, try using garam masala or curry.
👩🍳 Step-by-step Directions
Quick Note: To get a juicier sausage, I suggest you use ½ portion of minced meat and ½ of diced meat. The diced meat will give a more pleasant texture to the final product.
Cut the meat into cubes of about ⅕” (0.5 cm) Add the sliced meat over the minced meat. After that, add salt, pepper, and wine to the meat. Mix the whole composition well.
This is the basis from which you can go further and vary the recipe depending on your taste. But of course, you can stop right there, and make sausages using only these ingredients.
The composition that I just obtained, I divided it into 3 parts because I wanted to make 3 types of different Sicilian sausages:
If you don’t plan to make multiple variations, just keep all the meat on a single plate.
Sicilian Sausages with Fennel:
Ground the fennel seeds using a grinder or a mortar. I chose to grind the seeds finely, but they would be just as good if you left them coarser.
Sicilian Sausages With Garlic
As I said above, if you plan to freeze sausages, then use dried garlic. I chose to serve the sausages immediately, so, I used fresh garlic.
If you have decided to use fresh garlic, grind it and incorporate it evenly in the composition.
Spicy Sausages With Smoked Paprika and Chili Peppers
These sausages are a perfect fit if you love spicy food or if you want to serve these sausages near some beans.
Over the meat, add smoked paprika, and chili pepper to your taste. Mix well all the ingredients and we can start forming the sausages.
⁉️ How to Fill Sausages?
I used an extension to my meat grinder, for this procedure. In fact, you can also use a specialized cone, through which to fill the sausages manually.
I chose to use natural hog casings, but you can also find a collagen alternative on the market.
In both cases, the hog casings must initially soak in water to become soft.
After that, take a piece of hog casing, and roll it on the tube as you can see in the picture below:
Make a knot at the end of the hog casing, and begin to fill the hog casings with the meat composition that we have obtained above.
Don’t fill the hog casing too densely, as it may crack during the cooking.
After you have evenly filled the whole intestine, you have two options:
1. To leave it as is and to not portion the sausages. You cut them in portions later after you will cook them (This can be handy if you plan to bake it on a traybake).
2. Or to form smaller sausages by rotating the hog casing as you can see:
🍱 How to Storage:
How Long Does Sausages Last In the Fridge?
When the sausages are raw, you can keep them in the fridge for about 24 hours. During all this time, the sausages will obtain a more intense taste from the spices.
Can You Freeze Sicilian Sausages?
Yes. You can make a bigger portion, freeze them into the freezer, and eat them in the next 3 months. This can be a good idea to prepare more sausages in the autumn or winter.
What ingredients do I need to make homemade Sicilian sausages?
To make homemade Sicilian sausages, you’ll need ground pork, salt, black pepper, fennel seeds, paprika, red pepper flakes, garlic, and white wine vinegar.
How long should I let the sausage mixture rest before cooking?
It’s best to let the sausage mixture rest for at least an hour before cooking, to allow the flavors to meld together. You can also cover and refrigerate the mixture for up to 24 hours before cooking.
📖 Recipe Card:
Authentic Homemade Sicilian Sausages (3 Recipes)
Ingredients
For the Fennel Sausages:
- 1 ½ lb Pork
- ⅓ cup White wine
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ teaspoon Black pepper
- 3 teaspoons Fennel seeds
For the Garlic Sausages:
- 1 ½ lb Pork
- ⅓ cup White wine
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ teaspoon Black pepper
- 3 cloves Garlic
For the Pepper Sausages:
- 1 ½ lb Pork
- ⅓ cup White wine
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ teaspoon Black pepper
- 3 teaspoons Smoked paprika
- ⅓ teaspoon Chili Powder or to taste
Instructions
- Ground half of the meat, and the other half, cut it into small cubes.
- Put the meat in a large enough bowl. Pour a glass of white wine and season the meat with salt and pepper. Mix everything well.
- Add spices and herbs to the meat composition. For my first recipe, I added fennel, for the second garlic, and for the third, smoked paprika.
- Fill the intestines with this composition of meat.
- The sausages are ready to be cooked or to freeze.
Quick Note
I highly recommend reading the entire recipe to find more tips and notes about this recipe. Read Full Recipe ⇑
Notes
- If you are going to freeze the sausages, use only fresh meat that has not been frozen before.
- If you are going to freeze the sausages, avoid using fresh garlic because it will change its taste after freezing. I suggest you replace it with granulated garlic.
- Prick the sausages with a toothpick in several places, to avoid cracking the hog casings during cooking.
Diego Tapro
You have a rare mix of talent of not only being a cook but you’re also a great teacher! Really enjoy this content to step up my home cooking, with tips from someone from the industry. Thank you, Victoria!
Michelle
Hi Victoria! I made the sausages a few days ago, turned out fantastic especially the fennel ones!
Victoria
Hi Michelle,
I’m glad that you enjoeyed them!
Andrew Parker
so simple yet so delicious. I was wondering how spectacular it could be… right now sitting with this sausage and cold beer I could say it was beyond my expectation !!!
Paul Lones
Amazing thank you for sharing this!!! I’m am gonna give this a go for sure!
Fiona
I made this tonight for my family and everyone loved it!! Definitely a recipe I will be using again!
Cassandra
I’m trying right now to improve the quality of food that my family eats and because of that, I’m trying to make everything at home take control of the quality of the ingredients. I just made these sausages and they turned out great. My family liked the fennel one the best. Thank you!
Virginia
I made my first batch of Sicilian sausages, and by following your detailed instructions they came out perfect! Thank you for such a detailed recipe.
Liz
Couldn’t decide on which sausage, combined all three, fennel, garlic and smoked paprika. Wow it’s delicious! Thanks for posting the best Italian sausage recipe ever!
Victoria
Thank you, Liz!
Glad you liked them!
Lucas
Let me tell you, these authentic homemade Sicilian sausages are off the charts! The flavors take me right back to my Italian grandma’s kitchen. The combination of herbs and spices creates a mouthwatering aroma and a burst of flavor in every bite. They’re juicy, savory, and downright addictive. This recipe is a keeper, my friends!