Sausage and Peppers

Sausage and peppers is the perfect dish for any event.  I like it like a sandwich, in sauce on a sub, and over pasta.  Just delicious.  Even though it's a simple thing to make, it can easily be ruined.  First, you must start off with a good quality sausage.  I'm never really fussy over brands except when it comes to a few things: sausage, hot dogs, and canned Italian tomatoes.  If you want to have delicious hot dog, Hummel's is the only way to go.  Canned Italian tomatoes can make or break your sauce.  I always like to pick a brand that has tomatoes imported from Italy.  There will be a sticker on the can.  We usually use Cento, Sclafani, or if in a pinch, Luigi Vitelli.  Sausage MUST be Longhini.  There is no other sausage that can compare.  Lamberti's is okay if that's all that's available, but always try for Longhini.  Certain things in life you can skimp on.  You can get a store-brand box of cereal or a store-brand can of vegetables, but certain things you must pay attention to the brand.  It makes all of the difference in the world.

So here's the way to make fantastic sausage and peppers.  Get a big, rectangle pan that is somewhat deep.  Cut up an onion in slivers.  I would've said slices but I don't mean the circular slices that you put on a burger.  Strips, I guess.  Throw the onion in the pan.  Cut up the peppers into strips.  I know the red peppers are more expensive but they are the ones that add the flavor.  Even if you have less red peppers in ratio to your green peppers, that's okay.  You just want to have some mixed in.  Sometimes red peppers go on sale for like $1.99 a pound.  Whenever you see that in the grocery add, plan on making sausage and peppers.  I like to use red peppers and cubanelle peppers (those are the smaller, light green peppers).  I'm not a fan of a green bell pepper.  They have no flavor and contribute nothing to any dish.  It's nice to use orange and yellow peppers when you want to get fancy for a party, but those peppers are usually quite expensive, so save those for special occasions only.  Mix in your pepper strips.  Then I like to cut my sausage links in half so they cook thoroughly.  This is very important in my book.  First of all, sausage is made from pork.  I know that now the cooking shows tell you you can have pink pork now, but certain things I still like cooked all the way through.  A pork chop with a little pink doesn't bother me, but a pink sausage certainly does.  Not only does the pinkness weird me out, but so does the texture of the sausage.  If it's not cooked enough, then you can really taste and feel the casing chomping around in your mouth.  I don't want to spend 20 minutes chewing my sausage. Sometimes I use chicken sausage.  Longhini makes the MOST DELICIOUS Italian chicken sausage in the world.  I think I may like it better than regular pork sausage sometimes.  Most recently, I used 2 packages of chicken sausage with 1 package of pork sausage.  So in that case, you really need to make sure that it's cooked through.  Nothing worse in life than pink poultry.  Put the sausage in the pan.  Drizzle some olive oil on the top, sprinkle salt and pepper, and sprinkle just a bit of oregano.  Mix everything together with your hands and spread to flatten out the top.  Put in the oven at 350 or 375 degrees uncovered for a good hour or hour and a half.  Make sure that you stir it every so often so that it cooks evenly.  When you're done you should see beautifully browned sausage, tender peppers, and plenty of flavorful juice on the bottom of your pan.  My favorite thing to do is to buy some bakery hard rolls, put a spoonful of juice on the bottom of the roll, cut the sausage so that it's butterflied, and top with peppers.  Take  a bite and let the juice dribble down your chin!  That, my friends, is how you make sausage and peppers.  I've had sausage and peppers in the past that just taste like they're sitting in water.  It baffles me that something so simple could be so easily ruined.  Try it that way and tell me you can't notice the difference.

When I make sausage and peppers over spaghetti it has to be slightly changed.  I suppose you could use the oven but I think it's just easier to cook the sausage and peppers in a frying pan.  I don't like to cook the sausage with the peppers.  It takes longer for the sausage to cook through than it does to soften the peppers.  The peppers over the spaghetti will have more crunch than the baked ones.  I would cook all of my sausage with onions and then remove them from the pan.  Then add the pepper strips (you may need more oil, you may want to add more onions or onion salt, depending on your preference).  Let the peppers get soft, add back in the sausage.  Blend up your tomatoes, pour them over the sausage and peppers, add salt, pepper, basil, a twirl of wine, and a splash or two of red pepper flakes.  That's it.  I don't like overly herby sauces.  Sometimes people feel like they need to overdo it and add all crappy spices and sugar!  Good sauce does not need much.  Just give her some time to simmer on the stove and you're all set.  In my regular sauce I don't use onion, just garlic.  Onion in meat sauce, garlic in all others.  If you want to you can add a dash of garlic powder to the sausage and peppers sauce but that's all about preference.  Just remember Oil, garlic, tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, and wine.  Perfetto! Spaghetti is my favorite stringy macaroni.  Let all of the sausage, peppers, and sauce cook and bubble together for a while.  Boil up your ronies and then add them right to the pan with the sauce.  Mix it all up yummy and good and just dig in!

This week I plan on making "Ina's Perfect Roast Chicken," carnitas, and salmon.  As for the other nights, I'm not sure.  If I happen to eat something/somewhere I haven't blogged about yet, I will be sure to let you know.  Until my next bite!