There Is No Law Against Making Gravy With Italian Sausages
Either you die a hero, or you live long enough to be a villain, and I’m afraid I’m entering my villain era. Not intentionally, but my brain seems to gravitate toward weirder and weirder things. Grab this dish that would be considered a “great crime” by both the American South and the Italians, two cultures with proud traditions of going crazy over food.
Well.
While the beauty of most Southern (and, frankly, Italian) dishes lies in their simplicity, it’s still fun to play around with these elegant arrangements and cook up something deliciously tainted. (Indeed, when I took a bite of my Italian sausage sauce, which I served (to myself) on garlic bread, I said: “This is fucked up,” but I smiled when I said it.)
Italian sausage sauce on garlic bread is very tasty, but how could it be otherwise? Aside from breakfast pork sausage, the only other ingredients—flour and milk—are the epitome of neutrality, and substituting one type of sausage for another causes no dissonance in flavor—not even a little. Does this mean you can use any sausage with a similar fat content and consistency to make sausage sauce? It does. (I’ll leave you to experiment.)
Italian sausage gravy is creamy, salty, fatty, meaty and a bit spicy, with the usual seasonings you would expect from such sausage (garlic, paprika, fennel, etc.). This would be fine on a biscuit, but maybe a little off in terms of atmosphere, so I suggest going the garlic bread route. There are many ways to bake garlic bread, but I think the best way is to toast Italian bread with butter or olive oil, then rub half a raw garlic clove all over the crispy surface. (Garlic salt can be too salty when paired with sausage, especially if your butter is salty too.)
Like any sausage sauce, this one is very easy to make. There is literally no difference in the method (which we covered earlier ), but here’s a quick reminder.
Italian Sausage Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of your favorite, flavorful breakfast sausage (not donuts or patties)
- 1/3 cup flour
- 2 1/2-3 cups whole milk
Brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat. Once all the pink is gone and you have some color, slowly sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly so that the sausage is evenly coated. Cook for another minute, then slowly pour in the milk, stirring until you have a thick and juicy sauce. Taste, sprinkle with red pepper flakes or garlic salt if needed, then top with your favorite garlic bread and garnish with fresh Italian parsley.