Happy Hanging Sausage...And A Little Tiramisu

Italian households are a little different when it comes to the usage of the rooms in the house. Let me tell you a little about Mama Melisi's home.

First and foremost, the kitchen is the largest room, and the gathering place! Sitting around the kitchen table for hours is common, not just to eat, but to catch up on life, laugh, and connect with family and friends!

The garage is also a focal point, especially in the summer. You could easily spot a smoking grill nearby, and chairs set up to sit and watch the passersby! Neighbors breeze in and out, people stop to chat while they're walking their dogs...grandkids dart around, playing with all kinds of long ago games...croquet, horseshoes, even bocci!

One of the most intriguing places is the basement. I'm not talking about those comfortable, finished basements, with air-conditioning, carpeting, and another TV. Our basement was unfinished, interesting, intricate...and quite the place to play!

Let's start with the bike cellar. If you could lift those heavy, black trap doors, stoop a little as you descended the stairs, you would be in that tiny place. Housing only one or two bikes, there were mostly garden tools...or should I say big iron and steel gadgets that looked more like ancient relics you would see in the ruins of Italy! Great place to hide!

Continue through another door, and you're in the main part of the basement, with its large cinder block walls, and cracks and crevices throughout the cement floor. Standing in the corner was the full-sized refrigerator and freezer...fully stocked...and homemade wooden shelves filled with canned goods, olive oil, paper products. (You can never have enough toilet paper!) Here, we played supermarket!

Look upward, and the rafters were stuffed with old baseball bats, hockey sticks, jump ropes, and even boxes of big chalk. I could remember digging that stuff out, and running around after school in the fresh air! No computers at all, we played double dutch, hopscotch, a game of catch. When we could round up enough people, we'd set up teams for street hockey! And there were no nervous moms text messaging...no cell phones invading the airwaves...we were safe and having fun!

Continuing through the main basement, you would face the door to...the wine cellar! Anyone who was brave enough to open the door would be blasted by the cold air. This was a much more narrow room, with the lingering scent of grape and oak barrel! Big glass jugs were evenly arranged on the floor, and wooden shelves with carved out notches cradled bottles of homemade wine! But, that wasn't all...hanging carefully along a cord that was tied from wall to wall was...the sausage...happy, hanging, homemade sausage! And they hung for almost 2 months until they were dry. Every day during that time, my mom would have to go down and prick the air pockets out of the sausage with a needle! (Sounds like a great fantasy for any female member of the Husband Haters Club!) I couldn't wait till that sausage was cut loose, thinly sliced on a cutting board, and tasted for the first time!

Mama Melisi was famous for all kinds of homemade sausage...links, patties, or dried! We are giving you all the recipes...if you dare try! And, since it's also Valentine's Weekend, we're adding a luscious dessert recipe of homemade Tiramisu...for that special someone!

As always, we offer these to you with love,

From Mama Melisi and Me

Sausage Ingredients:

5 lbs. pork butt
1 shot glass of salt
1/2 shot glass each of black pepper, garlic powder, dry basil
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Casing

Preparation:

Trim the fat from the pork butt
Cut it into cubes
Season with condiments as listed above
Attach the sausage maker to your kitchen aid mixer
Before filling the casing, soak it in cold water, since it is usually packed in salt
(This can be done ahead of time)
Rinse one casing and slide onto the sausage maker
Put on the mixer and it will grind and fill the casing
(You have to help it along and squeeze the filled casing as it goes along...Also prick the sausage with a pin to let out the air.)

If the above is too difficult a project, you can have the pork butt ground and seasoned, and make sausage patties instead! This tastes great when cooked on the grill, and served with a roll to your liking!

Lastly, if you want to make dried sausage, the best month to do this up north is November. Use the same procedure as you do making the links. Hang it in the cellar to dry. You must poke many holes in the sausage with a needle, and also squeeze the sausage to get out all the air. Do this as a daily routine (6-8 weeks) until the sausage meat is totally dried. Again...great flavor...and a fun family affair!

Tiramisu Ingredients:

16-20 lady fingers (more if needed)
3 large eggs separated
1/2 cup confectionery sugar
1 tablespoon espresso
2 or 3 tablespoons Fra-Angelica or Kahlua or Marsala (I prefer Fra-Angelica) liqueur
8 oz Mascarpone Cheese (Italian Cream Cheese)
Cocoa

Directions:

Prepare a pot of black espresso coffee and cool

Step 1 - Beat the egg whites with a dash of regular sugar. Beat until stiff white peaks form, and set aside

Step 2 - Combine the remaining 3 egg yolks - 1/2 cup confectionery sugar - 1 tablespoon espresso and the liqueur of your liking. Beat with a rotary beater or in your mix-master for about 2-3 minutes. Add the mascarpone cheese and beat for about 5 more minutes. Then fold in the egg whites.

Step 3 - Pour espresso coffee in a shallow pie plate or bowl. Choose a pretty glass bowl for the tiramisu or use a trifle bowl if you have one. Dip one lady finger at a time in the espresso ( do not soak it) and line the bowl with each lady finger. Spoon a nice amount of the mascarpone mixture onto the first layer of lady fingers - do this along the sides and bottom. Continue to dip the lady fingers one at a time, and place over the layer of the cheese mixture...again spoon more of the mascarpone mixture over the lady fingers. I usually get 2 layers. Make sure the 2nd layer of lady fingers is totally covered with the cheese mixture. Place a spoon of cocoa into a small tea strainer. Tap the strainer with the spoon and sprinkle the top of the tiramisu with cocoa.

Step 4 - Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or more. If you do not have a glass serving bowl, then layer it as above in an oblong pyrex baking dish (about 8x10 size). Use a fairly deep dish in order to make 2 layers. ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!