Italian Sausage is full of flavor and great in all kinds of recipes, from pasta to stuffed peppers.
This homemade Italian sausage recipe combines a mixture of ground pork (or turkey) with seasonings and spices.
It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and a lot delicious!
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What is Italian Sausage?
Traditional Italian sausage recipes can be made with different types of meat or seasonings and are usually high in fat and flavor. In North America, typical Italian sausage ingredients often include ground pork, fennel, and other seasonings.
I frequently use bulk sausage to add to other dishes like lasagna or meat sauce. I like to make this sausage recipe with ground pork for great flavor and a little fat, although it has less than an Italian sausage link.
Flavor Makers for Italian Sausage
Meat: I love ground pork for sausage as it has a nice amount of fat and adds great flavor. You can also use ground turkey, beef, or chicken. If you have a local butcher, they often have mixtures of ground meat for sausage.
Seasoning: The secret is in all the seasonings (most of which are found in homemade Italian seasoning).
Fennel: Fennel seeds are really important in this recipe to give the sausage its signature flavor. You can use either whole or ground fennel (I use whole because it’s usually what I have on hand).
How to Make Homemade Italian Sausage
This Italian sausage recipe is intended to replace store-bought Italian sausage for browning in recipes. It doesn’t contain enough fat to create great Italian sausage links, but you can use it to make sausage patties if you’d like.
- Combine all ingredients (recipe below) in a large bowl (using your hands works best).
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Cook in a skillet over medium heat. Drain any fat and use in recipes or add to pasta sauce.
Storage & Leftovers
- Raw pork can be kept in the fridge for 2 days or frozen for 2 months (more food safety info here).
- Keep in freezer bags with the date labeled on the outside.
- Cooked Italian sausage will keep about 2 months in the freezer and uncooked sausage will keep about 3 months.
Italian Sausage Recipes
- Pappardelle with Italian Sausage
- Stuffed Peppers 5-star favorite
- Quick and Easy Sausage Pasta – great for a weekday meal
- Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce – set it & forget it
- Sausage & Kale Soup – 30 minute meal
- Homemade Supreme Pizza – perfect for game day
Did you make this Italian Sausage? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork or beef or turkey
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds or ½ teaspoon ground fennel
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary crushed
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes or to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Using your hands, mix until well combined and the seasonings are evenly distributed.
- Cover & refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
- To brown the sausage, add it to a skillet and cook over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a spoon until no pink remains. Drain any fat.
Notes
1-2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon smoked paprika Nutritional information includes ground pork, information may vary with beef or turkey.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pork
Cuisine American, Italian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
This is amazingly tasty! I can’t have nitrites/nitrates and have been deprived of most sausage for 20 years! I didn’t know it would be so easy to make. Now my pizza has more variety and I can make recipes that call for bulk sausage! Thank you!!!
I am so happy you found this recipe, Kat!
I rarely ever write reviews on recipes and I just had to with this one. This is so YUM!! I mixed the meat and spices yesterday and just cooked it up tonight. I was too lazy to form into patties but will do so next time. Very flavoursome and so much healthier than store bought sausage. I’ll definitely be keeping this recipe. Thank you!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Mandy! Thanks for trying our recipe ❤️
Perfect combination of spices … I used ground pork and added a touch more salt and fennel to the finished product …. absolutely delish!
Delicious, thanks for sharing Amy!
Woweee! This recipe did NOT disappoint! Perfect salt content and a really great ratio of spices. I’m so pleased with this- I’ll be using it for meat sauce with pasta and breakfast burritos. So delicious!
Great taste, we made 90lbs with moose.
My husband can no longer eat beef. So I have been looking for a good substitute to make Italian dishes I would normally make with ground beef and sausage. This recipe is it! I ground chicken thighs with the skin on. I then made the sausage using your recipe It works wonderfully.! Thanks for letting me enjoy my Italian recipes again!
I love this little recipe … I can make a batch and divide it up and always have sausage to put on my pizza!
I grew up in a small town with lots of Italians so I am spoiled. We used to get our sausage at the Italian grocers who made it themselves .
Lovely recipe .
Have I really not put my two cents in for this recipe? If so, that is a real shock – so often, I am quick to give my viewpoint. I have used this particular version as a shortcut for several recipes that have called for Italian sausage, which is difficult to find in Australia. Additionally, with particular religious convictions having me try not to consume swine, it is doubly useful; I substitute the pork mince for beef, and it generally works out well. Anything that is a little bit spicy already has me interested.
Just one of several weapons in the cooking arsenal to impress people. Forget getting the cans of cream soup, the specified spice mixes, and “obscure” items such as Cheez Wiz (again, Aussie here), most respected home cooks will have 90% of the needed items at their disposal. That is on a bad day.
I had some ground pork from the farmers market and wanted to make italian sausage for pizzas. This recipe was awesome! The flavors were perfect and everyone enjoyed it.
Where’s the fennel seeds?
They are in the ingredients list, you’ll need ½ teaspoon.
Bravo Holly!
This is the perfect recipe to turn ground pork into Italian Sausage for your own spaghetti sauce. I choose to make it a bit milder and sugar free by using just a little less of the red pepper flakes and NOT adding the brown sugar. I DO add the suggested smoked paprika and cayenne pepper.
Since I use one pound of lean ground pork and 1 & 1/4 pounds of lean hamburger in my spaghetti sauce, I up the ratio of spices and herbs suggested in the recipe.
Thank you and well done!
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
Is there a version of the Italian Sausage recipe that uses your Italian Seasoning?
Hi Michele, these Italian sausages use a similar spice blend to my Italian seasoning. I hope this helps!
I really appreciate that this sausage recipe does not use breadcrumbs as a filler. I find breadcrumb filled sausage doesn’t hold its shape as well as an all meat sausage – especially in broth based recipes such as Italian wedding soup. With your sausage recipe it was the first time I made wedding soup where the sausage balls didn’t disintegrate in the broth
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Linda!
This recipe is right on the spot! I made mine with half beef & half pork, and it’s so delicious Thanks so much for sharing!♥️
Having made this recipe twice no three times now it’s spot on, when I make chicken Cacciatore I use a quarter of the mix to flavour the Sauce wonderful adds another dimension of taste
I am so glad you are loving this Italian sausage recipe Oggie!
I made this with a combination of venison and personal ar a 2: 1 ratio with fresh garlic and fresh parsley because that’s what I had. It was excellent.
Sounds Delicioso! By the way, how much meat do I use? I didn’t see!
Thanks!
We use one pound of ground pork. For the full recipe, including ingredient amounts, scroll towards the bottom of the post or use the jump to recipe button at the top. Hope you enjoyed it, Suzy!
This is excellent Italian sausage seasoning!
Ground pork costs about half as much as Italian sausage in the grocery store and this tasted as good as my favorite brand! Thanks so much!!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
The flavour is basically indistinguishable from store bought Italian sausage. It’s perfect, and much healthier.
I lightly toasted my fennel seeds, and I used the suggested brown sugar and smoked paprika add ons.
Thank you for a great recipe! This will be my go-to from now on.
You’re welcome Jilian, so happy that you love this sausage recipe so much!
Made this exactly as written to add to Minestrone this weekend and it was perfect. Thank you for another win.
You’re welcome Michelle!
Thank you for your blog. I would like you to know that if I am looking for a recipe yours is the first that I go to. You have worked your way into becoming my favorite. Thanks for the good down to earth recipes.
Thank you so much for following and for your kind words Nora! Happy Cooking!