Sausage gravy, one of the pantheon of comfort foods. Rich, creamy, flavorful, filling, almost decadent. Also, so bleeping easy it's silly.
The heart of sausage gravy is the simple white sauce. It's an open canvas to spill flavor and texture on.
I start with loose sausage. We usually have 5 or 6 one pound packages in the freezer, as I buy them when on sale. Todays breakfast used one pound.
Smash it flat in the bottom of a medium sauce pan and start the heat on medium low. Go sip coffee and think about your sins, or your day. Whatever.
After ten minutes, when it smells good, flip that big flat hunk of sausage and go back to sipping coffee. The goal here is to leave it together as it first cooks so we get *all* of it cooked through.
What sausage? Anything you like... and I mean like. If you like it enough to just eat a patty of it with breakfast, then use it for this.
Once the sausage seems cooked through, drop in some flavor. I use a clove of roasted garlic, some dried onion, Aleppo pepper, and a dozen grinds of black pepper. Also toss in about a third of a stick of butter. Start breaking up the sausage with a wooden spoon and stirring as you go. Keep at it till the texture looks right to you. That may be big hunks, or it may be pretty fine. Just keep at it till it looks right to you.
Note: If you want to match that canned stuff they sell in restaurants, toss the sausage in a processor and zip it to a consistent fine grind. I don't bother.
Once the sausage is broken up, plop in about three heaping tablespoons of flour. Back to stirring, heat on high. We are cooking off the raw flour taste and looking for a little brown on the chunks. Notice all the fat in the pan has vanished. Keep stirring as it begins to brown.
Now, real quick, pour in about three cups of whole milk. Make part of it half-n-half if you want extra creamy, or even a can of evap milk if you are doing a pantry meal.
Get you to stirring, still on high, and DO NOT STOP. Just keep at it till it reaches boiling (a few minutes) and then turn heat to low while you keep stirring. Still for about two minutes after it begins to boil and you lower the heat. You will see it just get thicker and creamier as you stir. This is where I also dump in some Parmesan cheese and stir it in till it vanishes.
Shazaam! Now taste the gorgeous thing you have made and adjust the flavor to suit. Serve over anything you like. Biscuits are traditional but buttered toast is also a winner. No worries about spooning it over potatoes, hash, or eggs. I've served it over waffles and pancakes as well.
Does it keep? Oh yeah. It will stay good and tasty on a warm burner for an hour, and in the fridge for days. Make too much, and the leftover is like gold in the safe.
Note: This made enough to feed 3 hungry adults, with a small serving leftover for the fridge. Girl child failed to get on the bus this morning so she gets !@#$%^# nothing.
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