Ginger and Sage Breakfast Sausage

I have the book: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing

I've bought a meat grinder (though I'm still waiting for the sausage stuffing attachment).

I then noticed some pork butt chops at the market. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to make the two previously mentioned items useful. So one Saturday morning after coming home from the market, I got to work in the kitchen.

Something the authors of Charcuterie stress when grinding meat is to keep the ingredients and the tools cold. This proved to be the most inconvenient part of making sausage since my freezer has limited space. Beyond this however, making sausage from scratch was fun, easy and super cheap!

I'm not going to give away the recipe here but I will say that sage, ginger, garlic and pork go beautifully together. Following the authors' instructions on giving the meat a tacky texture turned out some succulently juicy sausage patties. What's even better is the fact that I had tonnes! If I'd stuffed them into sheep casings - which is what was suggested - I probably could have made between one and two dozen sausages for the price of not even a half dozen.

So far, Charcuterie is all easy and fun. Now all I need is to have a kitchen empty of the crap of roommates...just a few more months...

The finished product which tasted way better than it looks here

Ravioli with Sage and Roasted Pine Nut Butter

Once again drawing inspiration from the farmer's market, I found a huge bag of fresh sage for only $2. Considering that one quarter of this amount would easily have cost me close to $10 at the supermarket, I really couldn't pass up the opportunity. And since I've recently discovered fresh pasta at the market (though I have to go to both market's in town) I couldn't help but make a sage butter for my ravioli.

From reading Heat (see previous post) I've understood that butters or light, uncomplicate sauces are traditionally served with filled pastas such as raviolis or tortellinis. So I chopped up a good handful of fresh sage, dry roasted about 1/4 cup of pine nuts in a frying pan, chopped these and grinded about 2 tablespoons of fresh pepper into a bowl. I added 3/4 cup of butter (I unfortunately can't seem to find any unsalted butter) and mashed the whole thing together. Rolled up into wax paper, you can then take it out and slice off the required amount.

Now there's this thing I don't quite understand about adding pasta water to your butter when preparing. I little splash helps cut the richness of the butter and sizzles when you throw it in. I guess it's just to give an even bigger role to the pasta. Which is much deserved. I mean two ingredients and you've got one of the best inventions in the history of human kind. Forget computers. Or cars. Pasta. Now there's innovation.

I served my ricotta filled ravioli with the "watered" down sage and pine nut butter and some finely grated and melting Kerrygold Blarney Castle Cheese. It's a mild, creamy cheese which they say is similar in flavour to gouda. Along with a bitter frisée salad with soured cream dressing (10% cream with lemon juice, salt and pepper) this was a very satisfying meal. A 10 on 10.

Simplicity is king.