Venison Hot Italian Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup

The product page lists salt, sugar, red pepper, spices, and garlic, and describes chili flakes and fennel, so a pound of the sausage seasons the whole pot of soup. Venison is very lean, and the product page's 10-to-15 venison-to-pork ratio adds the fat a sausage needs to brown and stay juicy.

Made with

• Hot Italian Sausage Seasoning

Ingredients and steps

Makes: one 25 lb batch of fresh sausage (the soup serves 6 and uses 1 lb; freeze the rest in 1 lb packs)

Amounts: one package is sized for a full 25 lb batch. Follow the package directions for the seasoning and water. There's no cure pack, so this is fresh sausage.

Ingredients

• For the sausage: 10 lb venison and 15 lb pork trim (or 25 lb pork trim), very cold, cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 package Frisco Hot Italian Sausage Seasoning; distilled water as the package directs
• For the soup: 1 lb of the bulk sausage, 1 onion (chopped), 3 cloves garlic (minced), 2 lb russet potatoes (peeled and diced), 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth, 1 bunch kale (stems removed, chopped), 1 cup half-and-half or heavy cream, and grated Parmesan

Steps

1. Grind the venison and pork together through a 1/8 inch plate. Add the seasoning package and the water the package calls for, and mix until tacky.
2. Pack into 1 lb bulk bags. Refrigerate what you'll use in 1-2 days and freeze the rest.
3. Soup: Brown 1 lb of the sausage in a large pot over medium heat, breaking it up, until it reaches 160F. Scoop it out, leaving the fat.
4. Cook the onion in the fat 5 minutes, then the garlic for 30 seconds.
5. Add the potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer 15-20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Mash a few against the side of the pot to thicken the soup.
6. Return the sausage, stir in the kale, and simmer 5 minutes, until the kale is tender.
7. Stir in the half-and-half and heat through without boiling. Taste before adding salt. Top with Parmesan.

Pair it with

Parma Rosa Pasta. Another bag of the sausage goes straight into this one. The product page says to brown 1 lb of ground beef or Italian sausage, then add 4 1/2 cups of cold water and the kit.