Food Friday: Sausage and peppers

I love trailing through food stores, peering through shop windows and admiring perfectly arranged still lives of fruits, vegetables, and meats; getting ideas and inspirations. In Selfridge’s palatial food hall in London a few years ago I marveled at the goose eggs, duck eggs, and quail eggs artfully posed in small packages in a case that also included tubs of duck fat. Interesting. Unusual. Nearby there were the picture perfect piles of roasted meats, and strings of sausages, and boatloads of fish and pretty shiny red lobsters: too many culinary concepts for my addled tourist brain to absorb.

We used to live near a butcher shop where all manner of imported specialities are stacked on every surface, and they were fascinating to consider while standing in line for my two pounds of Italian sausage; one hot, one sweet. Perched on counters and shelves there were day-glow pink pickled eggs in Jeroboam-sized jars, capers small, medium and large, a color wheel of of olive varieties, huge cafeteria-sized tins of La Bella San Marzano Italian Plum Tomatoes, gallons of imported light, plain, virgin and extra virgin olive oils in varying-shaped vessels, dusty packages of pastas, trays of fresh mozzarella, and I could continue the inventory all day. I always feel humbled when confronted by all the ingredients of what must be the potential for many feasts, when all I want is some sausage.

One of the first meals that Mr. Sanders wooed me with was a dish of sausage and peppers. We still prepare it regularly, because it is easy, delicious, pairs well with garlic bread and red wine, it reminds us of our mis-spent youth, and it provides leftovers.

Sausage & Peppers
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 large bell peppers, cut into strips (We like the sweeter tasting red or yellow peppers)
• 2 medium onions, thickly sliced (I like Vidalia or any sweet onion)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (or be daring and use your garlic press – it will smell heavenly)
• 1 pound hot Italian sausage
• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
• A generous sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add peppers, onions, garlic and sauté 10 minutes. Cook until tender, about 5 -10 minutes. I like to char the edges of the vegetables.

Cook sausages in another heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until brown and cooked through, turning occasionally, about 15 minutes. Slice the sausage into disks, return to the pan and cook until they are nicely browned. Scoop the peppers and onions onto a platter and pile the meat on top. Mr. Sanders likes to add diaphanous curls of Parmesan cheese. Add a salad, a crusty loaf of bread, a tall glass of red wine (Dry January, ha!), and candles.

This is a good meal to make on the weekend, because you can toss the leftover sausage with pasta or rice, and voila! Dinner is already made for a dreary Monday, when no one (least of all me!) wants to cook. Or you can pile it onto leftover crusty bread and have a pretty deelish sandwich. Or add it as a topping to your Friday Night Pizza! We are kitchen geniuses!

Our smart friends at Food52 add potatoes to their sausage and peppers. Sausage & Peppers

Martha has to get fancy, as one would expect, but at least hers is a sheet pan dinner – super easy to clean up. Martha’s Sheet Pan Sausage

I made this Penne and Sausage dish for Monday night pasta last week, and we had it again on Thursday. The next time I try it, though, I will follow the recipe, and will remove the sausage from the casings and will crumble it in the pan, to speed up the cooking process. I also used half a can of crushed tomatoes because it was what I had in the pantry, and it was cold enough that I was not going back out to the grocery store for one more damn thing. I also substituted whole milk for half & half – too lazy to put on my winter coat. The recipe is that good! Imagine how it will taste when an ambitious, thorough cook like you makes it! Skillet Penne and Sausage Supper

Stay warm and dry! Enjoy the creature comforts you can prepare in the kitchen. Everyone will love you for it – even when you use milk instead of cream.

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
― Carl Reiner

Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.