Are Silva Linguica Portugese Sausage any good?
Yes! This is a quality product and no mistake. Meaty and dense and packed with powerful garlic and paprika flavors, not for the meek or mild of palate. For the rest of us, delicious. Use sparingly to add flavor to pasta, soup and pizza. Or pig out on a bun.
If you’ve never tried Portuguese linguica sausage it isn’t unlike several other European sausages such as Kielbasa. This particular product from California based Silva caught my eye on a recent Whole Foods shopping excursion.
I love sausage in all it’s varieties but I’m making a concerted effort to buy better products when I can. From vegetarian products for health and ethical reason through to better produced items when I do eat meat. The package on this Silva linguica checked all the right boxes; no antibiotics, no hormones, minimal processing and a general message of no added extra junk.
The sausage itself is firm and dense, you’re not going to break this down into a ground meat. Cooked whole, sliced or diced and then added to your dish of choice is probably best. Flavor wise, this linguica is delicious. There’s plenty of garlic but not so much so you’ll be tasting it all night long and the paprika is gentle too.
Silva Linguica Portugese Sausage cooking instructions and nutrition
Cooking is relatively simple. While the product is cooked, the packaging does advise cooking for 8-10 minutes, presumably just an ‘in case’ measure. At any rate the fat content means this one will spit all day long, cook covered unless you want an oil splattered kitchen. I wouldn’t boil or microwave this, its best to think of it more of a cured meat like a salami, than a direct hot dog replacement. That said…
What dishes can you make with these sausages
The simplest choice would be to grab a few hot dog buns and your favorite sauces; while that would be delicious (see below) it would be far from traditional. This sausage would be perfect to lend spice and flavor to a variety of dishes, everything from soups to pasta to eggs to chili if you were so inclined. Maybe even sliced thin on a pizza that needs jazzing up. Still, I had a couple buns lying around, so I couldn’t resist…
Silva have a few recipes on their site here, I note one is also just to chow down on a bun too. So I’m not alone there 😉
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.
I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen. Follow along on Instagram too!