Recipes

Cudighi Poutine

This is my favorite thing to eat in the Upper Peninsula, and it's a mashup only the U.P. could produce: Québecois poutine with the Iron Range's own cudighi sausage crumbled into it. Fries, squeaky cheese curds, hot brown gravy — and loose crumbles of that sweet-spiced Italian sausage added right before the gravy goes on, so the heat blooms the cinnamon and clove up through the curds. Two of the best things in the region in one paper boat. The Crossroads in Marquette does a version on the menu; this is mine at home. Background on both halves: [poutine and the U.P. table](/upper-peninsula/the-table-today/) and [cudighi](/upper-peninsula/cudighi/).

Upper Peninsula · Comfort Food · Potatoes · Italian

Cudighi Poutine
Prep 15 mins
Cook 20 mins
Serves 2 to 4
Level Easy

This is my favorite thing to eat in the Upper Peninsula, and it’s a mashup only the U.P. could produce: Québecois poutine with the Iron Range’s own cudighi sausage crumbled into it. Fries, squeaky cheese curds, hot brown gravy — and loose crumbles of that sweet-spiced Italian sausage added right before the gravy goes on, so the heat blooms the cinnamon and clove up through the curds. Two of the best things in the region in one paper boat. The Crossroads in Marquette does a version on the menu; this is mine at home. Background on both halves: poutine and the U.P. table and cudighi.

Ingredients

  • Base
  • 1 to 1.5 lb fries — fresh-cut and double-fried, or a good thick-cut frozen fry
  • 6 to 8 oz fresh cheese curds (squeaky, at room temp)
  • 8 oz cudighi sausage, casing off — see Sausage, Cudighi
  • Brown gravy (about 2 cups)
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 3 Tbsp flour
  • 2 cups beef stock
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire; black pepper
  • To finish
  • 2 Tbsp sliced green onion

Directions

  1. Key ingredients
  2. Fresh curds (not shredded), a real brown gravy, and good Sausage, Cudighi.
  3. Brown the cudighi and keep it loose:
  4. Cook the sausage out of its casing over medium heat, breaking it into loose crumbles, until browned. You want crumbles, not a patty, so it can nestle into the fries and the gravy can hit it. Set aside warm.
  5. Make a quick brown gravy:
  6. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and cook it to a light-brown roux (a minute or two — color is flavor here), then whisk in the beef stock and Worcestershire and simmer until it coats a spoon. Keep it HOT; hot gravy is what softens the curds without melting them flat.
  7. Build it fast, in order:
  8. Hot fries into a bowl or boat. Scatter the room-temperature curds so they start to soften. Then the crumbled cudighi — right before the gravy, which is the whole move. Ladle the hot gravy over everything so the cheese goes squeaky-soft and the spice blooms. Green onion on top. Eat immediately, before the fries surrender.

Notes

The idea Poutine is Québecois (fries + curds + gravy, born in 1950s rural Quebec); cudighi is the Marquette Iron Range’s sweet-spiced Italian sausage. Putting the one in the other is a very U.P. thing to do — two immigrant foods, French-Canadian and Italian, meeting in a bowl. The Crossroads Restaurant & Lounge in Marquette serves both and it’s where I first had them together.

Notes Use Jilbert’s curds if you’re in the U.P. Add the cudighi’s crumbles under the gravy, never on top, so they warm through. Make the full Sausage, Cudighi a day ahead so the spices bloom. A little of the cudighi’s tomato/pizza sauce is a good optional streak.