Makes about 10 (4 oz ea.) sausages. Recipe can be cut in half or doubled depending on the size of your crowd.
It's no wonder the internet is littered with Thanksgiving stuffing recipes that include cherries. Cherries just go so well with sausage. However, take advantage of the pork and cherry pairing when the fruit is at the height of its ripeness.
This spin is taken from one of my favorite dishes - Chorizo with Figs - but instead uses sweet Italian sausage and fresh sweet cherries. The best way to cook sausage, is to braise it in a good amount of water with aromatics - this will help render out the fat from the sausage. Then simmer the sausage until all the water evaporates and brown the sausage in the rendered fat. The sausage doesn't dry out and you have the most beautiful tasting, golden brown sausage to use how you'd like.
When serving this dish, it's perfect eaten on its own with some roasted vegetables or sliced on a bias and served on top of risotto drizzled in the cherry & rosemary pan sauce.
Italian Sausage with Cherries & Rosemary
About 10 links (about 4 oz ea) sweet Italian sausage
About 2 cups cold water
1 sprig (about 4") fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 bay leaf
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold water
1 large (about 12 oz) sweet vidalia onion, sliced about 1/8" - 1/4"
1 lb fresh sweet cherries, pitted, stems removed, cut in half
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions:
In a large heavy bottom pan with high sides or a dutch oven, place sausages in cold pan. Pour water over sausages along with the rosemary, garlic, bay leaf, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, sugar, and salt. Place pan over medium heat and place an offset lid over the pan. Bring the water to a simmer. Once water is simmering and sausages turn white/pale in color, remove the lid and continue simmering the liquid until it's evaporated, about 20 - 30 minutes (during the simmering, the fat will render out of the sausage, DO NOT remove or skim fat off surface).
Once the liquid has evaporated, continue cooking the sausage over medium heat until they're browned according to your liking. Remove the sausages from pan and set aside.
Keeping the pan over medium heat, deglaze pan with the 1/2 cup cold water, scraping all the browned bits off the bottom. Add onions to the deglazed pan and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add halved and pitted cherries, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, and brown sugar. Continue cooking until the mixture reduces, dark in color, and thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked sausages to the cherry and rosemary sauce. Cook for a few minutes to coat the sausages, if mixture becomes too thick, add one or two Tbsp of water. Remove the rosemary sprig and the bay leaf (it is normal for the rosemary leaves to fall off the stem and become part of the sauce).
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