It comes as no surprise that pesto blends well with many types of meat, especially with milder meats like chicken and rabbit. A pesto sausage is the perfect thing to make with sweet, flavorful, light-tasting rabbit meat!
Here’s a tried and true rabbit pesto sausage recipe straight from my kitchen.
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Rabbit Pesto Sausage Recipe
Makes 5 pounds of fresh rabbit pesto sausage.
First, make the pesto
If you don’t want to make pesto, you can use prepared pesto and skip ahead to the sausage-making part.
Pesto ingredients:
This should yield about 1 to 1 ½ cups of finished pesto, which is enough for a five-pound batch of sausage. If you are making more than 5 pounds of sausage, double the recipe or scale up accordingly. Remember -- you can always freeze any extra or use it for dinner!
- 3 cups fresh basil leaves
- ¾ cup toasted pine nuts or walnuts (Optional -- if you want a nut-free sausage, leave the nuts out; I usually prefer my pesto sausages to be nut-free.)
- 4 to 5 cloves peeled, fresh garlic
- ¼ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Olive oil -- about ½ cup, but more as needed for consistency; rabbit is a lean meat, so being heavy-handed with the olive oil is okay
- *Normally, pesto would have salt and pepper to taste, but the sausage has salt and pepper added, so it’s best to leave that out of the pesto so as not to throw off the sausage seasonings
Pesto Instructions:
- Place the basil leaves, nuts (if using), garlic, parmesan cheese, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor.
- Pulse and blend until finely chopped. Consistency should be fairly uniform.
- With the blender running on low to medium speed, drizzle the olive oil. Use more if necessary to achieve a good, saucy consistency.
- The consistency should be that of a slightly thick, movable sauce.
- Set aside or refrigerate until you’re ready to make the sausage.
To make the sausage:
Rabbit Pesto Sausage Ingredients:
- 5 pounds of rabbit meat trim**
- 1 cup prepared pesto
- 1 ¼ tablespoons salt
- 1 tablespoon white paper
- 1 cup ice water
**This is a lean, all-rabbit sausage recipe. If you like more fat in your sausages, you can add in pork fat, bacon ends, or other animal fat such as chicken. If adding fat, keep the total trim weight to 5 pounds so you don’t throw off the spice ratio.
The right ratio to use is 4 pounds of rabbit meat and 1 pound of another animal fat.
Rabbit Pesto Sausage Instructions:
- Grind the trim through a medium or coarse grind plate.
- Measure the salt and pepper together in a small bowl, then mix to combine.
- Sprinkle the salt and pepper mixture evenly over the ground meat.
- Add the pesto to the meat.
- Mix through to evenly combine.
- Add the ice water, then mix through again.
- Place the sausage mixture in the refrigerator to thoroughly cool. This should be several hours or overnight.
- After the sausage mix is cooled all the way through, grind it again through a medium or small plate (I use medium, but if you like finer ground sausage you can use whatever size you prefer).
How to Make Rabbit Sausage: Grinding and Mixing in Spices
Use as Loose Sausage or Stuff into Casings to Make Links
The sausage is now ready to use as loose sausage or patties. You can cook with it now or package and freeze it for future use (or both!).
If you like, you can stuff the pesto sausage into casings. If you are going to stuff the sausage, it again needs to be cooled in a refrigerator for several hours or overnight.
Casings will need to be rinsed and soaked before stuffing. They need at least one half hour of soaking before you can proceed. You can do this while the sausage cools out.
As long as you leave the casings soaking in fresh water, they can be prepared ahead of time. It’s fine to leave them soaking in the refrigerator overnight.
How to Stuff Rabbit Sausage Links
Serving Rabbit Pesto Sausage
This is a versatile, mildly flavored sausage that works well in a number of dishes.
- Serve it on its own as grilled or pan-fried links
- Cook and slice to use in pasta dishes
- Serve tossed in cheese tortellini with olive oil and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with shredded parmesan cheese
- Cook and slice into roasted tomato soup
- Use your imagination and create a new dish!
Helpful Links and Articles:
For tips on deboning and grinding your fresh rabbit meat, see this article:
To find more delicious rabbit sausage recipes, click here:
Find more helpful rabbit sausage-making videos here:
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