Sausage and Peppers

I was talking to my sister last night and I asked her if she remembered having sausage and peppers. I do, and I loved that dish. We didn't have it often, but as a special treat on Christmas Eve, and maybe one other time during the year.

When Alan and I married I made that dish often, then when I got pregnant, I couldn't stand the smell of it, and that went off the list of things I cooked.

My mom's recipe included tomatoes. Some recipes don't. And we didn't usually eat the dish in a roll (Italian roll), unless we had leftovers, then mom would send me to the store on the corner of Clements Bridge and the Pike and I would pick up four Italian rolls and we would feast at lunch. We ate it with spaghetti -- and the spaghetti was NOT put into the sauce/sausage pot, the sauce/sausage dish was heaped over the spaghetti.

What you need:

Sweet Italian Sausage
1 bell pepper -- sliced into thin strips
1 large onion -- sliced into thin slices
olive oil
1 large can crushed tomatoes (still chunky, but not whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes work well)
Salt and pepper to taste. I often add hot pepper flakes.

Brown the sausage in the olive oil. After the sausage is browned lower the heat and add the pepper and onions. When they have softened and caramelized add the tomatoes. Simmer until the tomatoes reduce by 1/2, or the sauce becomes thickened (sometimes one hour, sometimes less).

Are you all getting the picture that Italian cooking is a guessing game? You have to watch the pot, and taste it often until you're satisfied that it's exactly right.

NOTE: For those of you living in the midwest where finding true Italian sausage is difficult, I've found that Bob Evans mild Italian sausage is closest to the kind my mom bought in NJ.

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