Mild Italian sausage

I generally buy my meat from Hilltop Pastures Farm, because it is all grass fed and they deliver nearby and it is a good price. And their bacon is amazing, and much cheaper than the good stuff at the co-op, and I can get goat! I often now get some amount of ground pork for meatballs or breakfast sausage, but have thus far not made other sausage preparations.

I decided I wanted to try making a cauliflower crust pizza sometime this week, on which I wanted a mild sausage. So. I mixed up an Italian sausage recipe to try on the pizza, and ate it first on spaghetti squash (it's good to mix up the sausage in advance and let the meat sit so all the flavors absorb and get extra delicious). It turned out GREAT. And, as a thrifty bonus, if I were to order Italian sausage from the farm, it would be $6, as opposed to the $4 for the ground pork. So. I feel very happy to mix up my own sausage for these purposes from now on!

The sausage recipe below was adapted from this one I found on the interwebs. I just made 1 pound, but next time I'll make a couple or few to freeze.

Mild Italian Sausage
1 pound ground pork  
1 T apple cider vinegar  
1 tsp salt  
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper 
2 T fresh parsley (dried would work too)
1 tsp onion powder   
1 tsp paprika  
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground fennel seed 
1/8 tsp dried oregano 
1/8 tsp dried thyme

Add all ingredients in a bowl, use hands to mix well. Refrigerate for several hours, or a day.

I made this really simple "pasta" of spaghetti squash, a few mushrooms, garlic, butter, salt, spinach leaves, and the sausage. Plus a little asiago. It was delicious.