Sweet sausage is a mild variety of Italian pork sausage seasoned with fennel or anise, giving it a subtly sweet, licorice-like aroma, along with garlic and other herbs. It is one of the two standard Italian sausage styles, distinguished from hot Italian sausage by the absence of chili flakes or crushed red pepper rather than by added sugar. Sweet sausage is used in pasta sauces, pizza toppings, sausage and peppers, and lasagna in Italian and Italian-American cooking, and appears in Southern American breakfast dishes such as biscuits and gravy. Like any raw pork product, it should be cooked through before eating; it can be grilled, pan-fried, or baked.