Sausage and Peppers

This is my son's favorite meal. I make for him often and especially on his birthday. Its something I plan on teaching whoever he chooses to marry (many years from now) how to make, just so he always gets his favorite meal. Yeah, I'm that kind of Mom.

I first got this recipe from a Woman's Day article a few years ago. I've since lost the original card that came with it, but I've made it so often that it's one of the few things I cook I don't need to look up. I've made my own changes to the original, which I think most cooks do anyway. What I like about this recipe, besides that my son absolutely loves it, that it is very versatile. It's more of a sausage and pepper sauce for pasta than true sausage and peppers. My best friend Angel makes traditional sausage and peppers and it's to die for. Truly. I could eat the whole plan, but when she makes it, it's usually at a group gathering and I have to fight for my share with my son, her hubby and my brother. She likes my recipe just as much. It's nice when your friends like your cooking.

Versatility is what I think makes this dish great. I've adapted it to certain tastes and I even gave it to my son's boy scout troop to make one cookout. The boys found it easy to make on the trail and they all loved it. You can use the regular Italian sausage links found in most grocery stores or if you're lucky enough to have a meat grinder of your own, you can grind it, like if you were making stuffing. My local supermarket is known to have packages of ground sausage around holidays. Either way, crumbled or just cut up it works great. The same goes for the peppers and tomatoes. I personally, LOVE red peppers. I like the sweetness of them and of course the color. What peppers I use is usually dependent on what produce is in season and on sale. For example, this past week, my local grocery store has red peppers on sale for 99 cents a pound. They usually sell for 2.50 a pound so I grabbed a bunch of them and have made my meals for the week around peppers. To add variety and color, I also added a cubanelle pepper. They're easy to fry up and add a dash of green to the dish. Sometimes I use the pre-packaged "stop-light" peppers (red, yellow and orange). It's entirely up to you and what you like.

The same goes for tomatoes. I usually used Cento's Crushed tomatoes for the sauce. Sometimes I switch it up and used fresh diced tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes (depending on what I have on hand). Again, this is entirely a personal choice and you should use what you like best.

Mama's Sausage and Peppers with Penne Pasta (adapted from Woman's Day magazine)

6 Italian sausage links, sweet or hot - you can also use crumbled Italian sausage
1 box of whole wheat penne pasta
1 large can of crushed tomatoes - canned diced can be substituted if preferred.
3 peppers - use whatever peppers you like, for this serving I used 2 red peppers and 1 cubanelle pepper
1 medium onion diced
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
EVOO
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Red pepper flakes
Black pepper

*You will notice that I do not have salt listed on the ingredients. I try not to use salt in my cooking as previously stated in other posts. I don't salt my pasta water and if I can avoid it, I'll use other spices to add flavor to my dishes.*


Start the water for the pasta. Once boiling add the pasta and cook to al dente. If you're lucky enough like myself to be blessed with a pasta pot, this process takes a little bit so while waiting for the water to boil you can prep the rest of the meal.

While waiting for the water to boil, slice the casing of the sausage off. Once the casing is off, you can run your knife through breaking it up before putting into the pan. In a large skillet, heat up some EVOO for one turn of the pan on med-high heat. Add sausage and begin to brown. In the photo I have some hot sausage browning.
While the sausage is cooking, begin prepping the veggies. Dice the onion and slice the peppers into thin slices. Prep the garlic cloves last, because you'll be adding them last.
Once the sausage is browned, remove from the pan and set aside to keep warm. Drain off most of the fat and then add the onion and peppers to the pan. Cook the onion and peppers for about 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent and the peppers softened. Once they are cooked through, add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about a minute, until you can smell it cooking. Add the canned tomatoes and stir to mix together. Add basil, oregano, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Stir again to combine. Stir in the sausage and lower heat to low. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, to let the flavors combine.
Drain the pasta and then add the sausage and peppers to it. Mix together, serve and enjoy!

I hope your family loves it as much as my family does.