I hunted around the web and found lots of recipes, but no instructions on how to “work” specifically with dried Italian sweet sausage. A friend just brought some as a gift - the air-dried kind that hang in the butcher shop on Arthur Avenue in NYC - and I wasn’t sure whether they need to be peeled, rehydrated, fried/broiled/grilled as-is, or what.
Figured for sure there would be some Italian gastronomes on the SDMB who might help; I’d be much obliged.
The only dry sausage I’m familiar with is salami. I just slice it thin, peal the white-powdered paper off, and eat it on crakers.
Funny thing happened to me the other day. I microwaved a Jodi Maroni’s chicken andouille sausage. I sliced it up, chewed it up, swallowed it, and when it came out several hours later it was sausage-shaped! :eek: Weird, eh?
Have you thought of asking the people who own that place on Arthur Avenue if they have any serving suggestions?
It isn’t salami, but dry-cured sausage, as in sausage & peppers sandwich.
And I don’t know the name of the butcher [it was a gift], or I’d try that, thanks. I did try looking at other retailer sites on the web, but got recipes that didn’t include how to dress the sausage to begin with. I suppose I could randomly call butcher shops in NY, but I thought that surely some Italian Doper from NY/Boston/Chicago must know what to do ?
It depends on how hard the sausage has become (wait a minute, I don’t like the sound of that…).
Here is a recipe that could probably use it:
Do a search there for salami recipes and you’ll prolly find a couple of good recipes where it can substitute.
A sausage-and-pepper(-and-onion) sandwich is made from grilled fresh Italian sausage, not dry-cured.
I disagree with the idea of using it as a substitute for andouille or kielbasa, which are smoked sausages, not dry.
I would slice this stuff and eat it out of hand, along with some Pecorino Toscano, fresh bread, and Chianti.
I once had a risotto, in a small restaurant outside Montalcino, that was cobbled together out of red wine, strips of salami, and tiny chunks of dry-cured sausage…it was very rich, but very good. You could do something like that. Or chop it up and saute it with onion and scramble some eggs into it?