Porcella Urban Market is a new place in Bellevue. They offer hard to find goodies--including duck fat & confit, pates, terrines, and house cured sausage. Today the chef, Noah Mellich, taught Sausage Making 101. (Click here to see photos of the shop). For a mere $40, I took a 2 1/2 hour class and learned how to make three of Porcella's fabulous sausages. We were welcomed with a sampling of assorted beers, olives, pates, and lardo. Then at the end of class, I was sent home with fresh sausage and a promise to return in 6 weeks for our cured sausage.
In the class, we made:
*Italian Sausage 2 ways: stuffed in hog casings and wrapped in caul fat
*Spanish Style Chorizo in hog casings
*Tuscan Style Salami. For the smaller sausages (Salumette) we used hog casings but for the traditional size salami, they use beef middles.
As each type of sausage was completed, Noah prepared some for us to taste. I must admit, the recipes were so wonderful...they alone were worth the price of admission!
While I recently tried my hand at making sausage, I was excited to see someone else make it. Working in the Porcella kitchen, I was happy to see they used the Grizzly stuffer, which I recently bought. If you have a hankering to make sausage, I seriously recommend you get this sausage stuffer. I have the Kitchen Aid version and it is so tedious, it's prevented me from even wanting to make sausage on my own...until now, of course!
Keep an eye out for future classes at Porcella. Noah mentioned they're adding a terrine making class soon. Also on August 7th, the legendary authority on Italian food, Guliano Bugialli, will be teaching a class based on his latest book. Even if you're not up for a class, Porcella's house cured salami is well worth the trip!
