Italian Sausage & Peppers

(not my picture)

My wife used to make this Italian-American favourite. She's from that Philly/Jersey part of the country where it's popular. As always with this kind of thing, different people like it different ways, but this is how we do it. Sadly though, fennel flavoured Italian sausage is not generally found in UK supermarkets. Sainsbury's do a "Sicilian inspired" one which is something like, but I've found a couple of butchers who make their own. When you think about it, you could follow this recipe and substitute some other interesting, punchy sausage such as chorizo. Obviously it wouldn't be "Italian" any more, but it would nevertheless be something very good.

INGREDIENTS

• Italian sausages
• Onion 2 medium-large, sliced
• Peppers - 1 red 1 green 1 yellow (or whatever you like) sliced
• EV Olive oil - be generous with it
• Balsamic vinegar (optional)
• Salt & pepper

METHOD

1. Quickly brown the sausages in oil and set aside before fully cooked through
2. Add more oil to the pan and fry the onions until browning
3. Add all the peppers, season thoroughly and fry another 10 mins.
4. Chop up the sausages into bite-sized pieces and add back into pan (with a splash of Balsamic if you like)
5. Cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes or more, stirring occasionally until the onions and peppers are starting to melt into the juices.

Serve with crusty bread

FOOTNOTE
My wife had a go at making this with plain (British) sausages and adding crushed fennel seeds to the pan early on. Not a bad compromise apparently.

ALTERNATIVE
To spin it out further add some pasata or a tin of chopped tomatoes and serve with ribbon pasta. Very different though.

(not my picture)