My (current) favorite meal: Sausage and Pepper subs

To kick things off, I decided to share my favorite meal with, well ... right now there's no one reading this, but I'm sharing. It's a really tough thing to choose just ONE right now, but I think it's gotta be Italian Feast "Sausage" and Pepper sandwiches.


The sausage recipe is from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and I don't know if she has the recipe up on theppk.com. Last time I checked, it wasn't there I don't think but that was ages ago. Since no one's reading this, I'm going to skip copyright infringement and suggest all you ghosts out there buy the book for the recipe because a) it's a great cookbook. b) Moskowitz is awesome and deserves your money and 3) it takes a lot of time to type it out. Never mind, it's there: http://www.theppk.com/2008/02/on-sausages-and-community/

The only difference is on the link she calls for pinto beans and in the book she uses navy beans. Either way, it's all about the spices. You should still go buy the book. and all her others. ANYWAY- food.

you will need:
-one recipe of Italian sausage, sliced lengthwise into quarters, or if you want to cut down on browning time, just into halves.
-oil for pans. I like olive or canola.
-peppers: 2 large bell peppers: sliced. Or 1 bag frozen (I've done both fresh peppers and frozen pepper strips, it comes down to price for me. If you use frozen veg, the sammies definitely taste awesome if you mix in some marinara to coat the cooked veg. I think it really requires the marinara, but I'm have not yet acquired a taste for frozen veggies.)
-one large onion: sliced thin, or buy the frozen pepper strips with the onions already in there.
-Rolls. I heart Amoroso rolls of all flavors, but I usually go with the wheat club package.
-1/4 to 1/2 c marinara sauce. In a pinch, I'm sure you can just skip this and go with ketchup on your sandwich at the end. I've done it, when i used fresh peppers and onions.

First thing I do is get the sausages browning because sometimes they don't all fit into the pan in one batch. Take a 10" or larger frying pan/skillet, (preferably cast iron or non-stick) and lightly oil the bottom with canola or olive oil (just enough to thinly coat the bottom of the pan) . Heat it up to about medium or med-high and brown each side of the sausage to your preferred preference.

Second, you start cooking the peppers/onions in another skillet. Fresh peppers and onions: put maybe about 2 tsp of oil in pan, or less, preheated to med-high. Basically cook them, stirring every few minutes until they are soft and beginning to brown. Frozen peppers and onions: cook according to the stove top instructions on the package. which usually means, add some oil, heat up the pan, put in the veg, stir every few minutes til they are cooked and the released water has boiled off.  Then you can add your marinara sauce and coat it up good. Add more seasonings if you like, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt, pepper, what have you.

Third, when you're almost done you can start toasting the rolls in the toaster oven. I keep them closed so just the outside is crispy.

Then you can make your sandwiches. I use two 1/4 or one 1/2 sausage slice per sandwich and top with as much pepper/onion/sauce mix I can shove in there.