Traditional Cudighi Recipe

Why you’ll like it

• Inspired by Cotechino sausage: Cudighi is a pork sausage originating from the Upper Michigan Peninsula, featuring flavors of wine and mulling spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. It was introduced as Gudighi in 1936 by Italian immigrants inspired by Italian Cotechino sausage.
• Lean and fatty pork cuts: To create the beloved Cudighi Sandwich in Upper Michigan, the key is mixing lean and fatty pork cuts with spices, then serving the cooked sausage in a roll with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce, often garnished with sweet peppers while avoiding garlic and onions.
• Versatile dish: You can experiment to find your own unique Cudighi sandwich style.

For The Perfect Cudighi Sandwich

• The trick to obtaining the perfect Cudighi Sandwich loved by Yoopers is just to mix the lean pork cuts with the fatty ones and add the spices.
• Once, the sausage meat is cooked, then put in a roll together with mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce. Then I like to top it with sweet peppers avoiding the garlic and onions altogether!
• This is my take on cudighi! Just go for it and find your own Cudighi style.

What You Need

• Sausage stuffing – Beef casings
• Ground pork mix (1:1:1:1/3) –
  • Pork shoulder
  • Pork neck
  • Pork butt
  • Pancetta
• Spices: 
  • Dry Wine: Use red or white wine to add depth of flavor.
  • Salt & Black Pepper: Essential for seasoning the sausage.
  • Garlic: Adds aromatic richness.
  • Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Cloves: Gives a warm, spiced undertone.
• Cudighi Sandwich – 
  • Bread: Use hearty rolls like ciabatta or Italian rolls, or your favorite bread such as a hoagie roll or baguette.
  • Cheese: Classic mozzarella works well, but you can also try provola for a smoky touch, cheddar for sharpness, or pepper jack for spice.
  • Onions, Garlic, Pickles & Sweet Peppers: Use raw or caramelized onions, minced or sautéed garlic, dill or bread-and-butter pickles, and raw or roasted sweet peppers.
  • Marinara Sauce: Choose store-bought for convenience or make your own for extra flavor.
  •  
• Variations –
  • Spicier. Add cayenne to the spices mix.
  • Meat recipe. Swap the Pork with beef or duck

How to Make a Cudighi Sandwich 

Prepare the Cudighi Sausages

1. Cut the meat into small pieces and mix with the wine and spices
2. Combine well and then pass through the mincer. If you don’t have a mincer then you can use the food processor.
3. Shape the sausage paste. Now you can either fill the paste into the casings or otherwise divide it into small pieces to freeze or cook as patties.
4. Optionally, if you want to stuff the sausage into casings then you need around 1 meter casing for every 1kg sausage meat. Beware that the casings need to be soaked in warm water and a glass of wine. If you’re using a meat grinder, the job is easier by putting them in the tube accessory. The casine must protrude around 3 inches and then be tied with a knot before inserting any meat.
5.  

Cook The Cudighi Sausages in a Skillet

You can cook the Cudighi either on a grill, a burner, or skillet. Turn on the burner to medium to high warming it up. Then only once it has warmed up you can gently place each patty in a roundabout fashion on the skillet. After roughly about five to eight minutes go ahead and flip the patties you should see some good char marks here and make sure to cook this entirely the way through or until the middle of the pork patty itself reaches approximately 160°F / 70°C.

1. On the burner, heat the skillet on medium to high heat. Leave it warm up well before putting, the sausage patties to cook.
2. Leave to cook for 5-8 minutes before flipping the patty. Make sure it’s cooked throughout.

Cook The Cudighi Sausage in Oven

1. 1. To cook Cudighi sausage in the oven, preheat it to 375°F (190°C), arrange the sausages on a baking sheet, and bake for 20-30 minutes or until they reach an internal temperature of 160°F (71°C), turning them occasionally for even cooking.

Prepare The Cudighi Sandwich

To prepare this Michigan sandwich, start by cooking the pork patties and heating the marinara sauce. Then, assemble the sandwich by placing mozzarella-topped sausage patties in bread rolls, adding warm marinara sauce, sweet peppers, and optionally, grilled onions and garlic, before closing and pressing it gently to hold everything in place.

1. Heat the marinara sauce and slice the sweet pickles, onions, garlic or any toppings you like for your sandwich.
2. Put the mozzarella cheese on top of the Cudighi sausage and put it back on the grill to melt the cheese.
3. Pour the marinara sauce covering the meat patty and top with the pickles, onion and garlic.
4. Enjoy!
5.  

Saving The Cudighi Sausages For Later

• Freezing: You can freeze Cudighi sausages either by filling beef casings or forming them into patties before cooking.
• Vacuum Packing: For optimal freshness, vacuum pack the sausages. Adding extra salt can also help preserve the sausages.

Health Info

• Calories: 598.3kcal
• Sugar: 6g
• Sodium: 1615.5mg
• Fat: 31.7g
• Carbohydrates: 37.2g
• Fiber: 4.1g
• Protein: 35.6g

More Minced Meat Recipes:

• Pioneer Woman Sausage Balls
• Fried Chicken Meatballs
• Gochujang Meatballs With Turkey Mince
• Copycat Olive Garden Meatballs
• Chinese Sweet And Sour Meatballs With Turkey Mince

More Sausage Recipes:

• Sausage, Peppers and Onions Sheet Pan Dinner
• Sausage Rolls using Sausage Meat
• Sausage Plait Recipe
• Mary Berry Sausage Casserole