Bring Me The Menu, Signore

The origins vary, depending on who you ask, but usually Sicilians did not eat meat on Christmas Eve since it was the birth of Jesus. That does not mean that they don’t plan to eat meat on Christmas day. Perhaps that is the joy of a big hungry family coming together to do what big hungry families do best: EAT.

The Christmas celebration often began with a hog harvest. That’s a better word, harvest. The cold weather made things a bit safer by the standards of the day. Understanding “Waste not, want not” brought the sausage to the stove.

So suddenly it was Christmas Eve at midnight and that is the time when people would start cooking the sausage for Christmas Dinner, and often the eating would go on until the late/early morning hours. This fits my style perfectly.

Begin with lean pork butt and pork trimmings. 60% lean and 40% trimmings made the ratio for perfect texture in Jimmy Tant’s mind. He was a master industrial salumist, owner of Tant Packing Company, and my very dear friend. I can hear his reply now tot the question, “How are you today, Jimmy?” “Barely making it!”, would come the reply. Truth is he was usually officiating the Making of some of the best sausage, cured ham, hogshead cheese under this blue sky.

Get seasonings ready, which in the case of Italian Sausage is headed by Fennel. Add some garlic, salt, paprika, and a few others in the mix and you are all set. Cut the meat into 1” cubes, add red wine, the seasonings, and mix thoroughly. Chill it all to get the meat very firm. This allows for the grinder to do it job of cutting the meat rather then smearing the stuff into a bologna like texture.

Once it is chilled, grind up the meat. One sees the red lean bits and the white fat bits mixed all through the sausage. Now comes the fun. Put the sausage in casings, real hog casings that hold the meat close and allow for that natural feel that makes cooking so personal.

The Sicilians love Christmas and all the food that goes with it. We can learn. Here is the best recipe I know for a success:

Make something together,

Cook it together

Enjoy that with a glass of good wine,

Bless it together, then

Eat it together.

Merry Christmas.