Sausage, Pepper, and Onion Marinara

I blogged about this sauce before. But since I've tweaked the recipe and I remembered to take a picture tonight, I figured it was worth re-sharing. This dinner smells AMAZING while it's cooking - makes it hard to concentrate.

I made a loaf of bread to go along with the sauce. I adapted a recipe from our bread cookbook. It was a "Pain D'Ail" (garlic bread). I'd made that recipe before but this time got a bit more adventurous and I added parmesan cheese to it. I reduced the liquid a little to accommodate the cheese but apparently not enough. The dough, after the modification, was a little wet. I'll have to reduce the liquid more or add extra flour. It still tasted great though. Definitely a success.

The sauce recipe makes enough for us to have a couple meals. I serve this over whole wheat pasta (usually) but Jeremy also likes to make sandwiches out of the sauce. Just heat it up in the microwave and it's just a messy sausage sandwich. While it takes a bit of time to make it initially, having the leftover sauce in the fridge makes for a delicious and quick meal a couple days later. The sauce also freezes well (although it usually doesn't last long enough to need freezing for us). Just thaw in the fridge overnight before reheating.

I use turkey sausage for the sauce as it's a little healthier than regular pork sausage... and both are delicious. I've made this either by browning and slicing the sausage (as in the recipe below) or by removing the meat from the casings so that you get ground sausage throughout the sauce. Good either way - tonight I let Jeremy pick and he asked for browned and sliced.

The sauce has a nice spicy flavor (which you could cut back on or eliminate by reducing/eliminating the crushed red pepper flakes). This would also be delicious as a vegetarian sauce by eliminating the sausage entirely. In addition, while I had chardonnay on hand (and open...), this could be made with any reasonably dry white wine. (Or red... really it's for the acidity so the flavor of the wine would alter the sauce but most dry wines would be delicious.) If you don't want to use wine, add a little chicken or beef stock, or water, to loosen the sauce up a little.

Recipe:
1 lb. hot Italian turkey sausage (or mild/sweet if you don't like spice)
3 small bell peppers (or two large ones), diced
2 medium onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tbs. dried parsley flakes
1/3 c. dry white wine
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes

1. Place sausage in pan and cover with water. Add 1 tbs. of olive oil to the pan. Heat over medium-high heat until the water boils. Reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sausages are cooked through. Drain off any remaining water. Return pan to the heat and brown sausages, turning periodically. Remove from pan and wrap in foil.
2. Place pan back on medium heat. Add 1 tbs of olive oil to pan. Add peppers, onions, crushed red pepper flake and black pepper. Saute until the veggies begin to soften (4-5 minutes). Add wine and let evaporate for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, basil, and parsley. Stir to combine. Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes. Stir to combine.
3. Slice the sausages into 1/4" rounds. Add to the sauce.
4. Simmer for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes, until veggies are completely soft and flavors combine.
5. Serve with pasta and grated parmesan.