Making your own fresh Italian sausage is seriously easy. If you can make meatballs or meatloaf...then you can make your own Italian sausage.

Your homemade Italian sausage will beat supermarket sausages hands down; and the price can't be beat:

Store bought Italian Sausage is 3.99lb and homemade Italian sausage can be made with ground pork at 1.99lb + 25 cents worth of spices. You can see how much more affordable this will be; and it freezes really well, so make a big batch and stick it in the freezer for weeks worth of great Italian meals!

Sweet Italian Sausage Recipe

This recipe does not require you to stuff the meat into sausage casings. You can do so if you wish, but with so many recipes calling for loose Italian sausage, it's often not worth the effort.

2lb ground pork

1Tbls salt

1 Tbls ground fennel seed. Start with whole fennel seeds, and use your spice grinder attachment on your blender to grind them up, or do it manually in a mortar and pestle.

11/2 Tbls sweet paprika

1Tbls finely minced fresh garlic

1Tbls sugar

1tsp black pepper

3 Tbls red wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients together...and you have Italian sausage! You can use this mix right away, but it will get better after about 12 hours in the fridge.

Use this Italian sausage in your favorite spaghetti sauce, or instead of ground beef in lasagna. I eat it all the time simply sautéed up with some sweet red peppers, onion and fresh tomatoes...with a good crusty loaf I'm truly in heaven.

Multiply the recipe as needed, and if you make more than you need, it will freeze very well.

This can be stuffed inside sausage casings and grilled as well. Sausage casings can be found at most Italian grocery stores. Get a little funnel and shove the meat into the tubes; but don't push too hard, as it can be frustrating to rupture the casings as you get close to a finished sausage. When your sausage is the length that you want, twist off the ends and tie them in knots.

If you really get into sausage making it's worth the money to invest in a simple rotary crank hand grinder. Not only can you grind your own shoulder, belly or neck for a great quality homemade mince, you can also use a handy sausage stuffing attachment to easily stuff sausages in quantity.

Homemade ground is also far safer, and the risks of bacterial contamination proportionally lower. Just make sure to sterilize the whole machine well before using.

See the video below for inspiration!