Toulouse Sausages

I'm reposting this recipe as Toulouse sausages are one of my favourite tubular meats. Here, I've served them simply, with carbonara with homemade pasta. But, they'd have a great starring role in a sausage casserole and are a key ingredient in one of my favourite French dishes: cassoulet. 

To make these, you'll need a meat grinder with a sausage maker attachment.

Makes around 12 sausages (depending on the size)

Approx. 2.5m hog sausage casings (pictured)

500g pork belly, rind removed

500g pork shoulder

200g dried breadcrumbs

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

10g salt

2g ground black pepper

2g dried sage

Few glugs of red wine

2 tbsp oil

Soak the sausage skins in water overnight.

Cut the pork belly and loin into strips to fit down the feed chute of the meat grinder, then grind it using a coarse screen. Of course, you could use a fine screen, but I want to keep mine quite rustic.After all the meat has gone through, process the breadcrumbs to help push any meat left in the grinder.

Mix in the garlic, salt, pepper, sage and wine, then fry off a little bit to taste. Adjust any seasonings according to your own preferences. 

Set up the sausage maker attachment, feed the sausage casing over the funnel and tie a not in the end. Using a slow speed, push the sausage filling through and try not to let too much air in - otherwise the sausages could burst when you cook them. It's entirely up to you how long the sausages are, I went for about 15cm, just put a twist in whenever you're happy with it.

And that is it. To cook them, add the oil to a frying pan along with the sausages and gently cook for around 20 minutes over a moderate heat.