Summer Italian Sausage and Sweet Pepper Skillet. An Easy and Delicious 20 Minute Recipe

This recipe is fantastic for summer; when the peppers are sweet and tomatoes are ripe – and when you'd perhaps rather not spend hours in a kitchen slaving over a hot stove!

This simple, few ingredient meal is incredible, you can make it in a few minutes and when you serve this up with some good crusty bread (sourdough preferably) those at your table will appreciate your efforts!

I like to make my own Italian sausage for this recipe (just because making Italian sausage at home is so easy and so good) but any sweet fennel based Italian sausage works great here.

Italian Sausage and Sweet Peppers on Sourdough

For 2, although you can multiply the recipe as needed; this makes enough, when served along side a mixed green salad, for a hearty lunch or light dinner - for big appetites, you may want to increase the sausage load slightly.

• 1 sweet Italian sausage (about ¼ pound)
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 big and ripe tomato, diced (Or a couple of ripe plum tomatoes)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 smallish onion, or half a medium onion, chopped (you want about ½ cup of chopped onion)
• A little olive oil
• Water, if needed
• Salt
• 2 big slices of sourdough bread, toasted (grilled is great)

Instructions

1. In a heavy frying pan over medium, add in a splash of olive oil (1-2 Tbls full) and when hot, toss in your minced garlic, stirring until fragrant, about 20 seconds.
2. Immediately, add in the onions and peppers, sautéing for about 10 minutes, or until the peppers have softened nicely.
3. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the casing and into the frying pan, and stir until the sausage meat has cooked through, another minute or so.
4. Toss in your tomato and any leaking tomato juices from your cutting board and turn the heat of your pan up to high. Cook the tomato down until it has softened and turned the sausage mixture into a thicker sauce like consistency. If things are looking dry before the tomato has softened completely, add in a splash of water to keep things from burning.
5. Season with salt to taste.

Serve with a big slice of grilled sourdough bread and with a side mixed green salad in a vinaigrette. This meal is lovely when eaten outdoors on a summer evening!

It's so simple, but when eaten in season, when the tomatoes have real taste and the red peppers are sweet and cheap – this meal makes a very nice change from a BBQ meal while epitomizing the essence of summer eating.