Sausage, Peppers & Onions

We're fans of sausage around here.  It's a great main meal alternative to chicken or beef and I like that you can make it into a simple sandwich or a dressy main dish.  This recipe for sausage incorporates peppers and onions in a chunky tomato sauce which is perfect on top of pasta.  We've made this dish a few times and this is definitely a recipe that makes me enjoy sausage more and more.  Alternatively to serving over pasta, you could leave the links whole and serve them on toasted rolls piled high with the sauce and veggies, maybe topped with a little cheese.  Yes, that really sounds good now.

This recipe was one of necessity.  We had some sausage in the fridge and I wanted to do something a little different with it.  So I did some googling and found this on Simply Recipes.  I used 6 sausage links instead of 4, so I umped the amount of crushed tomatoes to make sure there was enough sauce to go around.  You have some options for a bit of customization with the recipe--your choice of sweet or hot sausage, whatever color bell peppers strike your fancy, and adding either Marsala or red wine to create another layer of flavor in the sauce.  I like this served over small pasta, like shells, rotini or penne, but linguine or spaghetti could be good too.  Serve this up with warm rolls or crusty bread and it's a filling meal that will definitely please.

Sausage, Peppers & Onions

Ingredients

6 Italian sausage links
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 bell peppers (different colors)
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup Marsala or red wine
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
salt to taste

Heat olive oil in a large, lidded pan over medium heat.  Add the sausages, browning slowly--be careful not to sear.  Cook through for several minutes, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.

While sausages cook, slice peppers into 2-3 inch strips, onions into 1/4 half moons, and garlic into slivers.

Remove browned sausage from pan and set aside.  Increase heat to high and add peppers and onions.  toss to coat in pan drippings, and cook until softened, stirring occasionally.  Sprinkle with salt and when slightly seared, add garlic and cook for another minute.

Add wine to pan and use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape the blackened bits from the bottom of the pan.  Reduce wine by half.

Add tomatoes, oregano and crushed pepper and stir to combine. Slice sausage into medallions and return to pan. Note: If you want to put the sausage on rolls, you can leave the links whole.

 

 

Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes so the peppers soften and sausage cooks through.

Serve over cooked shells or other small pasta.

Makes 6 servings.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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