Sausages are a food that you can find all over the world. Each country has a wide variety of sausages, with differences from region to region based on the aromas used, the way of grinding the meat (almost always pork), the size of the sausage itself. Usually, the sausages in the UK tend to be very finely ground, flavoured with herbs and sometimes apples, and have some sort of ingredient acting as a filler and absorbing juices when they are cooking.
Italian sausages are generally more coarsely ground so you see distinct pieces of meat and fat throughout, and they don’t have fillers so they shed more fat when cooked. The plain sausages are flavoured only with salt and pepper, but those with chilli or fennel are widely used and consumed. You can also find sausages with the addition of garlic (like in Spanish chorizo) or with grated orange zest. They can finally be fresh or slightly smoked, and they can also be dried to become cured meat.
I am very fond of the slightly rustic and meaty taste of Italian sausages, and since I can’t find them here in London at the supermarket, I make a periodic supply to store in the freezer by buying them online from Italian food suppliers.
The product that I usually prefer buying is the one of a company that produces sausages here in the UK with the traditional Italian method using the meat of English pigs. The company is called “salsicciamo” (a play on words meaning both “we make sausages” and “sausages love”) and offers a wide selection of sausages and meatballs. I personally love the classic mini sausages, the spicy Calabrian sausages, and I also find the ground sausage very useful, perfect to use on pizza or to season a pasta dish such as cream and mushroom tagliatelle.
The Stove Diaries 