Spicy Italian Sausage with Liver

Every year, I make one absolutely massive lasagna. It’s an incredible amount of pasta- less a feast, more a monument to excess. I’m not really sure what prompts it- like a duck moving south for the winter, something about the cold weather triggers me into it. I didn’t even realize it was something I did at the same time every year until Rachel pointed it out a while ago. This “lasagna instinct” is even stranger because not only was I completely unaware of my annual ritual, we rarely ever make Italian American food. It’s not some logical extension of my cooking style- it’s this completely unbidden urge to make a gut-busting amount of baked pasta.

The exact timing of The Lasagna is up to fate. This is not a special holiday meal. This isn’t a thing I’m known for- like, “Wade’s Lasagna.” We do share it with friends, but it’s not a thing. People don’t ask me about it every year the way you might with your neighbor’s strawberry-rhubarb jam. It’s the culinary equivalent of one of those cartoon anvils dropping out of the sky. It is, simply, The Lasagna, and any effort to understand or contain it would be better spent on eating it.

The exact composition of The Lasagna changes yearly, but one ingredient remains consistent- homemade spicy Italian venison sausage. Everyone’s got their own recipe for Italian sausage, but what I like about ours is that we incorporate venison liver. It adds a little depth of flavor to the sausage, and the seasonings balance it out to keep it from tasting too “liver-y”. We always have way more liver than we know what to do with, and incorporating a little at a time into various heavily-spiced sausages has been our favorite method of reducing waste. If you don’t have the liver on hand, or don’t want to use it, that’s fine too- just substitute more venison trim. This sausage is a staple in our kitchen, and you don’t have to use it to make The Lasagna either- it is versatile and thaws quickly if you pack it flat into vacuum bags, perfect for easy weeknight meals.

Spicy Italian Venison Sausage with Liver

Prep time: 30 minutes

Yield: 2 kg

This recipe uses fresh liver. If using frozen liver, thaw, cut and allow excess blood to drain before grinding.

Ingredients:

100% venison and venison liver (~3:2 ratio) cubed

33% pork fat, cubed

2% salt

0.5% fennel seed

0.6% black pepper

0.6% cayenne pepper

0.4% paprika

0.2% smoked paprika

0.2% red pepper flake

2% garlic, minced

2.6% dry red wine

Method:

Mix all ingredients except the wine in a large mixing bowl. Grind through coarse die of your meat grinder. Add wine to ground sausage and mix well with paddle attachment of stand mixer or a wooden spoon. Stuff into hog casings (optional).