Breakfast Sausage & Panzanella

Today we continue with our Big Sunday Brunch with homemade breakfast sausage and a big panzanella salad. If you made the sausage in the blog on pizza this will feel pretty much the same. If you have never made sausage before have no fear I have made it as simple as  1,2,3 for the home cook.  The recipe I have can easily be cut in half, but  if you make the whole recipe you get twice the sausage and only make a mess once.

Breakfast Sausage

Ingredients

5 lbs of course ground Pork shoulder( a good local butcher will do it for you tell them you want it about 75% lean)

1  1/2 ounces by weight of kosher salt

2 tbl of sugar

2 tbl of hot hungarian paprika

1 tsp black pepper

3 tbl of poultry seasoning

1 tbl of red pepper flakes(optional for spicy sausage)

3/4 cup of apple juice

Make sure all to keep all utensils cold so the fat in the meat does not break down. Mix the dry spices together. In a large cold stainless steel bowl mix the pork with the         spices. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit over night. The next day add the apple juice to the mix and mix in gently. Remove a small amount and make a patty and fry up to test the taste. Adjust salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning to your taste. Chill for about 1 hour and using a  1 ounce or 2 ounce ice cream scoup portion out the meat and form little patties. Lay out on cookie sheets lined with plastic wrap and freeze. After the patties harden place into Zip Loc bags and keep in your deep freezer until needed.

Panzanella

This recipe is for a big crowd so feel free to cut it in half for a smaller group.

Ingredients

1 lb of thin asparagus

day old french bread cut into large cubes( approx 12 to 14 cups)

2 hearts of romaine washed and dried torn into large pieces

3 cups of arugala or assorted mixed baby greens

2 red peppers cut into strips

2 yellow peppers cut into strips

2 cups of crumbled gorgonzola cheese

2 cucumbers peeled and seeded diced into small cubes

olive oil

salt and pepper

2 cloves of minced garlic

For the dressing

2 tbl of stone ground mustard

2 shallots minced

1/2 cup of  a good Italian vinegar other than balsamic.

1 tsp of  brown sugar

1  1/2 cups of olive oil

2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of black pepper

In a bowl mix all the ingredients for the dressing but the oil and then whisk in oil slowly, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Toss bread cubes with olive oil until lightly coated. Lay out on a couple of cookie sheets and sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake for approx 20 minutes at 400 until nicely toasted. Cut bottom 1/4 off of  asparagus peel the bottom 1/4 that is left. Cut  asparagus on an angle into 4 pieces, toss with garlic, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil and roast in oven at 400 for approx 10 to 15 minutes. When bread and asparagus are cooled toss with other salad fixings in a big bowl and pour the dressing over it and toss. Make sure you toss about an hour before serving so flavors can meld.

Eat Well

Chef TIm

I prefer 2 ounce patties.  If you use that size you will have approx 40  sausage patties.

To cook: Lay patties out on a plate let thaw in fridge overnight and fry up the next morning.

Tags: Black pepper, Cook, Garlic, Home, Mustard (condiment), Olive oil, Salad, Vinegar