Cooking sausages

[Tab]

I don't prep sausages very often, but I got some for tonight, wanted to make something cheap and tasty and cheap (did I mention cheap?). So I have sausages and some pasta/tomato sauce. Sausages are the sweet italian sausages. Sauce is a little spicy.

Traditionally I've poked a few forkholes in each, boiled them to get rid of the messy stuff until they get a light grey (only needs a few minutes) and then might have slow cooked them or sliced them or grilled them (split, so they cook properly). They come out okay - I like them - but nothing too special about them. I'm more of a kielbasa / smoked sausage man myself. I like my sausages from a vendor on some city street somewhere where the aroma pulls you in from 100 yards away.

Anyone have a favorite way of cooking sausages? Remember, this will be sausages with a pasta sauce.

Thanks

- t

[NMDemDist2]

1. take them out of the casings THEN fry it up and add to the sauce

:hi:

[cbayer]

2. That would be the way I would do it as well.

I love sweet italian sausage meat in my tomato sauce. The casings, not so much.

:hi:

[Tab]

3. Naw, I want them whole

put them on a roll or something. Otherwise I'd buy them without casings. No, I'm looking for a sausage sandwich, maybe with melted cheese on top, but I want them whole. Just trying to figure out if there's a better way or if I've pretty much done it the way most do.

I will confess that I asked here first before trying to look it up. I usually try to research this stuff (e.g.: compare recipes looking for common elements or "best practices") before getting as far as asking here, but I'm feeling lazy today, and figure SOMEONE on this list must be pretty good at making these things.

That said, a quick punctured boil and finishing on the grill is usually good - no major complaints - but my grill's gas connection is whacked and I don't feel like fixing it, and we're due for a foot of snow tonight, so I'm looking for an alternative, but good, way to do them.

Besides my dogs are all going frickin' nuts. I can't figure out what they're barking at, but it makes it hard to concentrate.

[NMDemDist2]

4. I never prick the skins then

I just put some water in the pan and then when it boils off finish cooking them off to a crispy crunchy in the skillet

I got a grill pan from the supermarket stamps last year, don't know how I lived without one all these years.....

[eleny]

19. That's how I do them, too

A little water to get them cooking but then that boils off and they seem to keep their flavor and get browned.

[troubleinwinter]

21. Me too. Sandwich...

I'd slice 'em in half the long way and cook as ya say, a bit of water with a lid on to cook, then remove lid, let water cook away to brown 'em.

Saute some sliced green bell pepper strips & sliced onions.

Put the deal on a french roll with a slice of swiss cheese.

Put it in front of husband and tell him it's "dinner".

He thought it was his birthday.

[eleny]

22. Oh, delish!

[Warpy]

5. Actually, all that grease gives you a tremendous amount of flavor

and what I did (back in the day when I ate stuff like that) was skin the sausages, crumble them into a saucepan, and cook them until all the grease was rendered out. I'd pour off the excess and save it for something like fried taters later in the week and use a couple of tablespoons left in the pan to saute my onions and garlic for the sauce. I'd deglaze the pan with a little red wine, then add the tomatoes and herbs.

That was my go to sauce for lasagne and it wasn't bad over pasta, either.

[hippywife]

6. If you want to leave them whole

drop them raw into a crockpot with the sauce and let them simmer together for several hours. They should flavor the sauce wonderfully. :hi:

[Tab]

8. My crockpot is a "cracked" pot

although I think I have something else usable. But I cracked the crockpot a few years ago and never got around to replacing it.

[Lucinda]

7. Here is my method.

I don't puncture them any time during the process.

I simmer them in lots of garlic powder and enough water to cover them, without a lid for 10 minutes and covered for another 10.

During the second 10 minutes of saussage simmering, I saute onions in olive oil and a little butter. I'll throw peppers in if I have any around also.

Once the 20 minutes are up, I move the sausages out of the water and put them in the skillet with the onions to brown off. Once I get some color all around, I'll add a ladle or two of red sauce to the pan, add some extra garlic powder, sea salt (or kosher) and black pepper, and keep cooking until the sauce turns a rich dark red color.

I LOVE them this way. We use them with pasta and sauce and also make subs out of them. The thick tomato "sauce" in the pan is killer on garlic bread too.

[Tab]

9. That's different enough that I might try something in that direction

sounds worth giving it a shot - will let you know what I ended up doing.

[Lucinda]

13. The technique works well for me. Thye get cooked through, and remain tender,

and the pan browning goes a long way to add the flavor you'd get from a grill.

I'm curious to see what you end up doing!

[Tab]

10. No one's recommending piercing them

and that's how I did it originally, but I always got this greasy slick in my sauce. A puncture and quick boil always seemed to clear it without trashing the flavor.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. You might want to pierce them if you fry them.

I think piercing them allows some of the flavor to just evaporate. I prefer to keep the flavor, so I rarely pierce them ..... maybe on the grill.

Maybe.

[Tab]

14. Don't know, I always got this greasy slick

If you don't pierce them on the grill, the skin will burst anyway - same effect. It was more putting them into pasta sauce uncooked, letting it go for hours, but I always got this greasy slick in the sauce as a result.

As I said, I don't do them often, and they're not the best health-wise, but a few times a year won't kill anyone. I just don't do it enough to try to make a science out of it, and I've never worked in a restaurant where we did it either, so it's just for fun. I'll try combining some of these ideas.

Thanks

- t

[eleny]

20. Remove the greasy slick with a ladle

Or put a paper towel on the slick and it will be absorbed. I have one of those very super fine mesh skimmer and that removes floating grease, too.

[Tab]

23. Normally I would in a regular boil

like if you were making a consomme, but this stuff is just mixed in with the rest.

I guess the way to do it would be to refrigerate it, let the stuff float to the top and congeal, and then take it off as a hard substance, but that's more than I'm in the mood to do.

I'll try again tonight. I got more, and I expect to be camping out. We're supposed to get nearly 2 feet of snow now. (sigh)

[eleny]

26. 2 feet of snow?

Damn! Stick the covered pot outside and let Mother Nature work for you since she's being so bad! :D

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Two methods

One: Fry them in a pan before serving on the side with the pasta/sauce. You have to do them slow and you have to add some olive oil to get them started.

Two: drop them in the sauce and let it simmer for at least an hour. Serve.

The result of these two methods is very different. The frying renders a sausage much as you might think of from a sidewalk vendor or off a grill. The flavor is all sausage. Even with sauce, the sausage flavor is there, in your face. A very bright flavor.

The simmering methods blends that sausage flavor into the sauce and the sauce flavor into the tomato. A very mellow flavor.

[Tab]

15. Slow and low, I'd expect

Olive oil has shit for a smoke point.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Yup, slow and low and allow to nicely caramelize

[Tangerine LaBamba]

17. I simmer them in the sauce

First, like you do, I did them in some simmering water for 8 - 10 minutes, punching holes in them to ooze out the fat.

Then I drop them in the sauce, and let them simmer for an hour or so. They add to the sauce's flavor, and they pick up the flavor of the sauce - a perfect synergism.



Whatever is leftover is great on a crusty roll the next day with some sauce spooned over it. Really good cold weather food.

I just found a pound of sweet Sicilian sauasages in the freezer. There will be baked ziti this weekend..............

Enjoy!

:toast:

[Tab]

24. I'll give that a try tonight

I think we qualify for "cold weather food".

Assuming I even have power tonight. Nasty-ass storm coming this a way.

[Tesha]

18. Pierce, steam in a frying pan w/inch of water

when the water evaporates add olive oil to the pan and slice the sausages in bite size pieces if you like. Add veggies - garlic, onions, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini and all the spices you like - I'm an oregano fan.... always good with pasta and sauce and great the next day.

[NashVegas]

25. I Just Pan-Fry Them

To get them brown on the outside, and then dump them in the sauce.

I don't even eat them, just use 'em for flavor.