Italian Salsiccia Fresca (Fresh sausage)

[yotmon]

Found this in a book by Antonio Carluccio and it's from the Puglia region of southern Italy.

2.5Kg lean pork
600g back-fat.
50g salt.
2 tsp black pepper.
2 tsp fennel seeds.
600g Caciocavallo or Provola cheese, cut into small chunks.
Dried chilli to taste(optional).

Coarsely mince the pork and fat and mix with all the ingredients. Fill and link, and cook over charcoal/wood embers. but can be fried or even boiled.

Not tried it yet, but bet the cheese gives it a nice flavour. I'll probably try it with lumps of Chedder first though, seeing as I've never heard of the other two. The salt may need adjusting depending on how much is in the cheese.
Ste.

[onewheeler]

Cheddar doesn't sound very similar. Provola is a small provolone, which you sometimes see in shops here. I'd never heard of caciocavallo but it looks as if it might be similar to scamorza, which is a great cheese but almost never seen here. Mozarrella is supposed to be a good substitute for scamorza, although I can't say the resemblance is obvious either in appearance or taste. Although it's quite different in type, halloumi would also have good cooking and flavour properties for something like this sausage.

It sounds like a nice recipe. Keep us informed of how it goes.

Martin/

[DanMcG]

Never heard of caciocavallo so i looked it up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caciocavallo

Sounds good but I also think the cheddar won't be a good substitute.