Italian Sausage Seasoning

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Make your own Italian sausage at home with this homemade Italian sausage seasoning recipe. Add these savory spices to turkey, pork or beef and have delicious Italian sausage ready for pizzas, meatballs, spaghetti, homemade hamburger helper lasagna, breakfast pie or your favorite Italian dish.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Reader Sandy says, “I recently used this recipe to make homemade Italian sausage. I’m very picky and my favorite store bought brand is Dinos. It’s no longer sold in my area. I can say without a doubt this recipe rivals Dinos. I let it sit in the fridge 24 hours to let the ingredients meld into the pork sausage. You must try this recipe with confidence that the flavors are just right.”

seasonings in a bowl for italian sausage seasoning
julie clark in a kitchen

The Italian Sausage Seasoning to Make At Home

Do you like making homemade spice mixes? It can be cost effective to whip up your own seasoning blends at home with spices that you may already have in your cupboard. Italian seasoning, fajita seasoning, taco seasoning and pasta salad seasoning are 4 of our favorites.

When we started watching our sugar intake, we realized that so many of our favorite foods had sugar in them. Sausage was one of those things.

Now let me tell you. I love my sugar. But if I’m going to make the decision to have sugar, I’ll take a donut, please. I don’t want sugar in my sausage.

This homemade Italian sausage seasoning solves that problem and lets you know exactly what you’re putting in to your food to season it.

If we make up a big batch of this, we used dried onions and garlic (or onion powder and garlic powder). If we make up a single batch, we use fresh onion and garlic. Use it in our sausage breakfast pie!

Enjoy! -Julie

What is the distinctive flavor in Italian sausage?

Italian sausage has many herbs and spices, but fennel seed is what gives it its distinct flavor. Don’t skip it. I buy whole fennel seed and crush it slightly when making this seasoning mix.

sausage seasoning on a spoon
seasonings in a bowl for italian sausage seasoning
seasonings in a bowl for italian sausage seasoning

Italian Sausage Seasoning Recipe

4.76 from 514 votes
Make your own Italian sausage at home with this homemade italian sausage seasoning recipe. Add these savory spices to turkey, pork or beef.
Servings 8
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

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Ingredients
 

  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed (we use whole, but you can crush the ½ teaspoon of whole seeds or use ground fennel if you'd like)
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic (we use fresh if not making a big batch)
  • 1 teaspoon minced onions (we use fresh if not making a big batch)
  • 2 pounds ground beef (or turkey, chicken or pork)

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl, combine all of the seasonings. Add the seasonings to 2 pounds of ground beef. Brown or cook as desired in a large skillet.
  • Store any leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
  • The seasoning mix itself can be stored at room temperature, in an airtight container in the pantry. This seasoning mix makes enough to season two pounds of ground meat. You can use more or less, depending on how flavorful you like your food. We recommend starting by using this whole recipe in two pounds of meat and adjusting from there.

Notes

*If you’d like, you can use all dried seasonings and make up a big batch of seasoning to store in your pantry. Be sure not to use fresh onion and garlic if you do this. Use all dried seasonings (same amounts).
Use ground pork, ground beef, ground chicken or ground turkey, which is our preference. If you’re a hunter, even venison is a great option.
If you really want a sweet Italian sausage, add a touch of brown sugar to this spice mix.

Nutrition

Calories: 292kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 80mg | Sodium: 662mg | Potassium: 322mg | Vitamin A: 145IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 2.5mg
Course Main Dish
Cuisine American, Italian
Calories 292
Keyword easy spice mix, homemade seasoning mix, how to make italian sausage seasoning

Italian Sausage Recipes

I use this Italian sausage in Italian vegetable soup, Italian meatballs, spaghetti sauce and lasagna. Anytime you have an Italian dish, you can substitute Italian sausage for the ground beef to give it an extra zip of flavor.

It’s also great as a rub for pork shoulder.

Be sure to also try:

mixed sausage seasoning on a spoon

How to Store Bulk Seasoning

I often make up a big batch of this savory Italian sausage seasoning. You form it into homemade sausage patties or roll it into sausage links and freeze to cook later (I actually like having an Italian sausage patty for breakfast alongside some veggies), or you can cook them right away.

You can also brown the meat and freeze it. This makes it super easy to pull out and use in sauces and all of your savory Italian dishes!

Otherwise you can store the seasoning mix in an airtight container and keep it at room temperature.

About JulieJulie Clark

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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4.76 from 514 votes (420 ratings without comment)
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Christy
1 year ago

Don’t have fennel.must I go purchase it?

Olivia Votaw
1 year ago

5 stars
I made this recipe and it is fantastic! It’s so flavorful. Definitely a keeper. Thank you!

Martha
1 year ago

5 stars
I made this with ground turkey and it was very good!

Stevi
1 year ago

3 stars
After using this recipe, my husband asked me to forgive him for whatever he did that made me not season his meat 😂😂🥲🥲🥲 won’t be using again

Eric
1 year ago

5 stars
Used this with Impossible Meat and it was excellent! I really dug the balance of spic

Ralph
1 year ago

5 stars
Scaled this recipe up to 16 pounds and it worked great! Traditional Italian Sausage flavor.

Lilah
1 year ago

5 stars
This is so delicious! It is a bit spicy for me so I lower down on the red pepper flakes, but the rest of my family loves it just how it is. Thank you for a delicious recipe!

Last edited 1 year ago by Lilah
Dan
1 year ago

Oh my… “I-talian seasoning…” You may as well just get a sausage mix.

Debb
1 year ago

5 stars
We make this all the time and slice for homemade pizza. Family loves it

Justin
1 year ago

5 stars
Hey there. I’ve been using this recipe for a few years now with slight modifications for my Italian sausage here in Thailand. I use it on my pizzas and make some of the highest rated neapolitan pizzas in the country. Thank you.

Hillary
1 year ago

I make all of my combined seasonings so that I know what is in them. I have used this combo for a long time and it is ALWAYS a huge hit. I think I stumbled on it right around the time it was originally posted. Since we don’t eat pork, I had just thrown in the towel on being successful at certain dishes. You could tell that the recipe needed a flavor I wasn’t able to get without the proper meat. As soon as I found this recipe, my cooking changed. I no longer have to eliminate recipes that call… Read more »

D George
1 year ago

This is a excellent easy, great tasting recipe

Patrice
2 years ago

5 stars
This is a great recipe. I made 8 lbs. of Italian sausage last night, using just 1 tsp. of the red pepper flakes and more fennel seeds and it was very good. This recipe is a keeper for me. Thank you! And I appreciate being able to scale it up.

Jenny
2 years ago

5 stars
Our family loves this recipe! The sausage is really easy to make and tastes amazing. Thanks for another great recipe!

Franie
2 years ago

I guess you forgot the main ingredient, FENNEL SEED. Nonetheless, a fine recipe. I just added that!