Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

Serves 4.

Ingredients

You can use different colored bell peppers, or just stick with green or red. This recipe uses a ccombination of sweet and hot sausages, but if you want a milder dish, use only the sweet sausages and reduce the amount of chili pepper flakes in the recipe. Likewise, if you want it hotter, use only hot sausages and/or bump up the amount of chili pepper flakes.

• 4 italian sausage links (sweet, hot, or a couple of each)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced into 2 to 3 inch long strips
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into 2 to 3 inch long strips
• 1 bell pepper of another color (yellow or orange or purple), sliced into 2 to 3 inch long strips
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced into slivers
• 1 large sweet or yellow onion, sliced into 1/4-inch half-moons
• 1 small (15 oz) can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp of dried oregano
• 1/2 cup Marsala or red wine (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Serve with either:
  • Polenta
  • Penne Pasta
  • Hoagie Roll

• Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pan.
• When oil is hot, add the sausages and brown them slowly. If they sizzle and crackle too much, turn the heat down-- you want a gentle browning, not a sear. Cook for several minutes, turning them occassionally so they brown on all sides. When fully browned, remove from pan and set aside.
• Increase heat to high and add onions and peppers. Toss to coat with oil in pan and sear as well as you can, stirring every so often-- you want some blackening.
• Once onions and peppers soften, sprinkle some salt on them.
• Once onions and peppers have some searing, add garlic and cook for one more minute.
• Add the Marsala or red wine if you are using, and with a wooden spoon scrape the bottom of the pan to release all the browned and blackened bits. Let wine cook down by half.
• Add tomatoes, oregano, and red pepper flakes and stir well to combine.
• Add sausages back in. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low.
• Cover and simmer until the peppers are soft and the sausages are cooked through, about 20 minutes.
• Sausage, peppers and onions, will keep in fridge for several days. Leftover sauce is great for pasta!