Italian Cacciatore Salami Food

ITALIAN CACCIATORE SALAMI

Steps:

• Chop the meat and fat into 1-inch chunks. Remove as much silverskin and gristle as you can from the pork. Mix the meat and fat with the salt and the Instacure No. 2 and grind through a coarse die; I use 10 mm. Put in the fridge in a covered container overnight.
• The next day, put about 10 feet of hog casings into some warm water and set aside.
• Mix all the spices and sugar with the meat and fat. Chill for 1 hour in the freezer, then grind through a medium die, about 6 mm. Note, if you've already ground the meat through a die this small, grind only half of it. Check the temperature of the meat: If it's 35°F or colder, grind half of the mixture through a fine die; I use a 4.5 mm die here. If the meat mixture is warmer, freeze it until it hits the right temperature and then grind. Either way, put the meat into the freezer while you clean up and get ready to stuff the links.
• Run warm water through your hog casings while the meat is chilling. This flushes them, and will show you any leaks in the casings. Set them back in the warm water when you're done.
• Also while you are waiting for the meat to chill, get your starter culture ready. Gently mix the starter culture with the distilled water and let it sit for at least 15 minutes.
• Once the meat is 32°F or colder, put it in a large bin. Add the wine and starter culture and mix everything well with your (very clean) hands for a solid 2 minutes. Your hands should ache with cold as you do this. Alternately, put the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the heavy paddle attachment. Mix everything on the lowest setting for 60 to 90 seconds. Either way. you will see the meat change texture: it will bind together and stick to itself.
• Put the meat into your sausage stuffer and stuff it into the hog casings. Twist off into links of about 8 inches. Twist off your links (Here's a quick video on making the links) or tie off each link with kitchen twine. As you do this, use a needle or sausage pricker (Heat the tip of the needle over a flame until it glows; this sterilizes it.) and prick out any air pockets in the links. Do this gradually and gently or you will rupture the casing. This takes some practice.
• Hang the links on a drying rack - a wooden clothes drying rack is excellent for this. Now you need to ferment the sausage. You will want to tent the hanging sausages with black plastic from some garbage bags, or some other plastic sheeting. If you have one, put a humidifier under the sausages. You really want them to stay moist. Let the sausages hang for at least 36 hours, and up to 48 hours. Every 6 to 8 hours, spritz them with a spray mister to keep them moist. This is the fermentation stage, the stage where the starter culture you are using defeats any bad bacteria in the sausage.
• When the sausages are ready, hang them in your drying chamber. I use an old fridge with a temperature regulator and a humidifier in it. Hang the links at about 70 to 80 percent humidity for at least 2 weeks before eating. You can let them go as long as 6 weeks. Store in the fridge, or vacuum sealed in the freezer.

ITALIAN CHICKEN CACCIATORE

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook onion, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a pot.
• Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Toss chicken thighs in the flour mixture until evenly coated.
• Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in the skillet over medium heat, add chicken thighs, and brown on one side, without turning, for 5 minutes. Turn and cook until browned on the other side, about 5 minutes more. Transfer browned chicken thighs to the pot.
• Pour white wine into the skillet; bring to a boil. Stir to loosen all the browned bits of chicken and flavors in the skillet pour into the pot. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and sugar; season with salt and pepper. Add as much chicken stock as needed to cover the chicken. Cover pot and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 45 minutes.
• Stir in olives, parsley, and basil. Stir to heat through.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE CACCIATORE

Steps:

• In a skillet, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until crisp-tender. Crumble sausage into skillet; cook over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Drain. Add the tomatoes, tomato juice, pepperoni, oregano, basil and pepper. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms and olives. Simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in cheese. Serve over pasta.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE CACCIATORE

Steps:

• In a sauce pan heat oil over medium heat.
• Fry sausage, and bacon if using until golden.
• Remove all but 1 tbsp of fat from pan.
• Add onion, green peppers, celery, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper until mushroom liquid evaporates.
• Add tomatoes and tomato paste, bring to a boil.
• Stir, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
• Add sausage to tomato mixture, cover and simmer for about another 10 minutes.
• Ladle over individual servings of pasta.
• Sprinkle with Romano cheese.
• Cook your favorite pasta according to package direction.

SAUSAGE CACCIATORE

Steps:

• Cook onions and peppers over medium high heat for 5 minutes until they begin to soften.
• Add garlic, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 5 minutes more.
• Add tomatos and tomato soup, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Increase heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat back to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add sausage. If using raw sausage, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until sausage is completely cooked through. If using pre-cooked sausage, reduce simmering time to 10 minutes.
• Add zucchini and summer squash slices, and cook for 5-8 minutes more. Squash should still be firm, not mushy, but cooked through.
• Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes before serving.
• Serving suggestion: Spoon over angel hair or linguini. Also great with cheese tortellini. Pass the parmigiana!