Sausage & Peppers

Yesterday I wrote about our adventure picking our own fruit & veggies this past weekend at Lawrence Farms. I had all these green peppers sitting on the counter begging to be cooked. (I used the yellow squash in another recipe)

As my mind was pondering what to make with these green lovelies, my ITALIAN hubbs comes in and makes a request. Can you guess what it was? What would any full fledged Italian guy want? You guessed it - Sausage & Peppers!! I guess it wouldn't be too hard to guess if you already read the title of this post.

So, here goes...

Since no one in my family besides me likes spicy food, I used sweet Italian sausage. Fortunately I had a package in my freezer and didn't have to go out to get some. One package had six links in it so that was perfect. I put them on a sheet pan in the oven set to 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

I used 4 green peppers because green was all I had. If you have red or orange or yellow, go for it! Anything will do. I also had a large yellow onion so I sliced them all up and put them in a pan with olive oil.

You can see how crunchy the vegetables look. The peppers are bright green and the onions are very white at this point.

Next I chopped up about 4 cloves of garlic.

I LOVE garlic so the more the merrier for me. Adjust it to however much you like. They go into the pan as well.

Let this mixture cook for a while but don't let it brown. (you can add some salt and pepper at this point) They'll start to get soft and change color. See how the peppers aren't bright green anymore and the onions aren't as white - they are more translucent now.

While they cooked a bit longer, I took out the sausages. They look pretty good...

until I turned them over and noticed I scorched the poor things!

That's what happens when you try to do a million things at once. Not a problem though. This can be rectified. Since they were only burnt on the bottom, I sliced off the burnt part. Shhh - no one will ever know.

Then I sliced up the sausage - I like to slice it on an angle.

in they go, into the pan

I had some leftover sauce that I made a couple of days ago so I put in about a cup. At least that's what it looked like when I poured it in. I didn't actually measure it.

I just have to stray a minute to say I HOPE you guys are making your own sauce!! It is so super easy and tastes so much better than the jarred stuff. I'll have to write about that soon so you'll see how easy it is. So, for this ONE TIME ONLY if you don't have homemade sauce, I'll let you slide. Use the jarred stuff if you must.

OK, I'm back. I also put in about a 1/4 cup white wine - again no measuring and also because that's what I had in my fridge. I would have preferred it to be red, and a bit more, but what can I do?!? That's what I had.

Mix it up and it should look like this...

It was still a bit thick so I added in some chicken stock. I didn't have any homemade and this I actually do use from a box, but I will ONLY use Kitchen Basics. It's the one in the yellow box. I probably used about another 1/4 cup. Now cover it and let it continue to cook.

Along with the sausage and peppers, I was making pasta, so I allowed the s&p to cook while I waited for the water to boil for my pasta, and while the pasta cooked - so maybe that was another 20 minutes.

It was smelling good in here!!! Everything was done!!

Except one thing was missing. The bread! Where's the bread?!?

Calm down, will you!! It's on it's way. The hubbs went out to get some while I was cooking.

I don't know if I can wait too long.

If you are ever interested in picking your own produce, go to pickyourown.org and select a state to find places near you.

Sausage & Peppers Recipe

1 package Italian sausages - sweet, hot or both
4 bell peppers sliced (red, green yellow, orange or all)
1 large onion sliced
4 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup pasta sauce
1/4 cup wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Cook the sausage on a sheet pan in the oven for 20 minutes at 375 degrees
Drizzle a saute pan with olive oil and cook the peppers, onions and garlic until soft
Add salt and pepper
When the sausages are done, slice them up and add to the vegetable mixture
Add the sauce, wine and chicken stock
Cover and cook for another 20 minutes on low heat
Serve with pasta...and BREAD!!