I vote for this one too. I know this is Garden Web, so a meat thread is kind of OT, but...Curing meat and making sausage is a way of preserving...we have our own animals, so it's sort of like growing our own meat ;)

I pretty well just do breakfast sausage....ground pork s little salt....a little brown sugar....and a goodley amount of rubbed sage and black pepper. For 2 pounds of meat....start with 1 rounded tablespoon of sage, 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper....mix...put about a teaspoon on a micro safe plate and cook about 30 seconds.....taste and add more of whatever it needs....likely more sage and pepper. I don't use a recipe....my rule of thumb is 3/4 tsp of salt per pound of meat.....and from there I experiment and taste as I go. Other nice additions are a thyme and parsley and lemon zest sausage.....or marjoram and sage. Other additions include applesauce and some bread crumbs ( so it's not too sloppy with the apple sauce) and maple syrup is nice in a thyme and marjoram sausage. Then you can get into the Italian sausages....lots of garlic powder, lots of paprika and some cayenne and oregano and cumin seeds. The combinations are almost limitless.....just taste as you go and if it's flat add more seasoning and if it's too spicy add more unseasoned meat.

We have the grinder attachment (and sausage stuffer) for our old KitchenAid mixer. We use it quite a bit, as we like to fresh grind hamburger as well. When freshly ground, it is reasonably safe to cook a hamburger rare. Of course, as a kid I used to eat hamburger meat raw when Mom wasn't looking!

When I make mine, I use at least 5-7 different kinds of cheese, I like to use ground beef and pork sausage and then layer it with rendered pepperoni (but I've started using turkey pepperoni lately). It really gives it a nice flavor. Seasoning should be lighter but plenty of Italian seasoning. Might throw in a bit of Louisiana Hot Sauce too. I occasionally go for a pizza flavoring rather than conventional pasta sauce. Recipe really depends on the size of the pan and what ingredients you use in what quantities. Be sure to let it sit a while after it comes out of the oven to rest, cool and it'll be easier to cut and dish up. For side dishes, I like the obligatory salad and garlic bread. My garlic bread has garlic, real butter, black pepper (sometimes I substitute lemon pepper), Italian Seasoning and parmesan. For an appetizer or even a quick dinner I'll put pepperoni and/or sausage on it and mozzarella cheese.