By: Frank Nicastro
The art of sausage making has been around since the year 500 BC. Back home in Italy, families made sausage and dry-cured them as a means of food for future use. It was also a family event and everyone pitched in and helped.
In Calabria where I’m from, the region of Cleto-Cosenza is known for great food as well as great wine and sausage making. The town lies on a mountain side and families grew most of their food and raised their own animals for survival. They would slaughter their own pork and make sausages yearly. It was quite an event and people would look forward to the outcome of the sausages so they could compare them with friends, to see whose were better. Over a glass of wine with friends, there wasn’t a better social event than sharing homemade dry-cured sausages. Sometimes it became pretty competitive, be everyone thought theirs were better than the others.
The tradition continues, as there are still Italian families making their sausages every year as they do with their wine. For many, it’s a passion that evolved into a hobby, but unfortunately, it’s a dying tradition.
The new generation today has less time and unfortunately our priorities have changed. Hopefully people will recognize how important it is to continue this tradition, as I do, and help their parents during the sausage-making process, so these traditions can continue for generations to come.
As per my experience, once you start, it will be hard to stop. I am the 4thgeneration on my family to have learned the art of sausage making. It is a great satisfaction when you produce something like sausages, and especially when the results are positive.
So you must be thinking, how are they made? The process begins with buying fresh pork. You begin by de-boning and removing all excess fat and silver skin from your meat. Then you cut the meat in pieces to fit through your meat grinder. You then grind your meat through a coarse knife attachment. When the meat is all ground up, you’re ready for the most important part; the spices. The spices are then hand mixed and worked into the meat thoroughly. This is one reason why at Casa Nicastro customers come from all over Ottawa and surrounding regions to buy our sausages. The spiced meat is then put into a stuffer and pressed into a natural casing. Then the filled casings are braided manually into links, and the process is completed.
If you’re making the sausages for curing, you would tie the links with some butcher string. This will make sure that each link is tight without any air pockets. The links can then be hung up in a cold storage room. The best time to make sausages in our climate, is in the months of March and again in November, because in those months cold storage rooms at the best temperatures. Curing could take about 30 days for sausages and about 45-60 days for larger sausages (also known as sopressata). Dry-cured sausages can then be put into a container and covered in vegetable oil or lard preservation.
Freshly made sausages can be consumed immediately and are great on the barbeque or added into a tomato sauce.
When you are ready, enjoy them over your favorite plate of pasta. If you get a craving for them and don’t have time to for cooking, keep in mind that they’re a favourite among many restaurants on Preston Street. So the next time you’re out dining on Preston Street visit one of them and try a dish.
Don’t forget the Vino and ENJOY!