Sausage and Peppers
An Italian-American skillet basic: sliced peppers and onion caramelised, pre-cooked sausage browned, garlic and herbs in at the end. Over rice or in a hoagie.
Overview
The Italian-American skillet basic that nearly everyone forgets about and then rediscovers, the kind of dish you can make on a Tuesday with whatever sausage is in the fridge and have dinner on the table 25 minutes later. The flavour leans on three things: pre-cooked smoked sausage (kielbasa is the gentle option, andouille turns it Cajun, sweet Italian is the traditional Sunday-supper-in-Bensonhurst choice), peppers and onion caramelised until they're sweet and slightly tacky, and a generous amount of fresh garlic added at the end so it scents the dish without burning. Italian seasoning (or herbes de Provence) rounds the herbal note. Smell when the garlic hits hot oil at the end is the moment you know it's nearly done. Easy enough that this is what you cook when you're tired; honest enough that it doesn't suffer for it. The dish has its strongest roots in Southern Italian immigrant kitchens of the early 20th century in New York and New Jersey, where bulk sausage and bulk peppers were both cheap and where the leftovers shoved into a hoagie roll became the lunch the next day.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 green bell pepper (sliced into strips)
- 1 red bell pepper (sliced into strips)
- 1 white onion (large, sliced into half-moons)
- 340-370 g pre-cooked sausage (kielbasa, andouille, smoked sausage), sliced into rounds
- 8 garlic cloves (finely minced)
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or herbes de Provence)
- salt
- pepper
- Fresh chopped parsley, to garnish
Method
Stage 1 - Peppers and onion
- Heat the butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add the peppers and onion.
- Cook 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and lightly caramelised.
Stage 2 - Sausage
- Add the sliced sausage rounds.
- Cook 3-4 minutes until golden brown.
Stage 3 - Garlic and seasoning
- Stir in the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
Stage 4 - Serve
- Plate hot; scatter parsley.
- Serve over steamed rice, in a hoagie roll, or as-is.
Notes
- Sausage choice is the dish: smoked kielbasa gives a comfortable smoke; andouille turns it Cajun; sweet Italian sausage is lighter and traditional.
- A 25-26 cm skillet works: wider keeps the peppers in a single layer for caramelisation. Crowded = steamed.
Storage
- Keeps 3-4 days refrigerated; freezes 2 months.
- Reheats well in a hot pan or microwave.
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