Day 152: Memories of San Gennaro

I'll give you one chance to guess why I used to love the New York San Gennaro Festival.  Surely none of you think it's the insane crowds, throngs of tourists, or the silly carnival games.  Of course - it's the food!!

I know this falls into the TMI (too much information) category, but generally speaking, pork sausage just does not agree with me.  Therefore, I would allow myself the indulgence (and afterwards, the torture) only once a year in the form of a sausage and peppers sandwich at San Gennaro.  Of course, that was followed up with a nice, hot, fresh funnel cake topped with powdered sugar.  Yep - the whole outing was pretty much just one giant intestinal disaster.

Anyway - for some reason this week I was thinking about San Gennaro and realized that I could make my own delicious sausage and peppers but in a healthier way that wouldn't kill my digestive system.  I'd use turkey sausage, skip the big giant roll, and of course - omit the funnel cake.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1 onion (or, half of a purple onion and half of a yellow onion)

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2-3 colored bell peppers, sliced lengthwise (use different colors for better presentation)

4 links of spicy turkey sausage (or sweet, if you do not care for spicy)

Approximately 1/4 cup of white wine (broth may work as well)

Olive oil

Pour a thin coat of olive oil into a stainless steel pan and heat on medium-high heat.  Lay sausages in hot oil and brown on all sides.  Remove sausages and set aside.  

Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in white wine to deglaze pan.  As wine hits the pan, it will sizzle furiously.  Use a wooden spoon or spatula and quickly rub at and release the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.  Add onion and garlic and saute until softened (6-8 minutes).

Add peppers and saute until softened, stirring frequently.  If you're afraid that things might start to burn, throw in a another couple of splashes of white wine.  It'll take awhile for the peppers to soften up, unless you have sliced them very thinly.  Mine weren't all that thin and I believe it took 10-12 minutes.  Covering the pan will speed up cooking, but just make sure you keep an eye on it so that the veggies don't burn or stick to the pan.

Once the vegetables are to the desired softness, slice the sausages in half vertically and add them to the pan with any juices that may have accumulated when you set them aside or when you sliced them.  Mix everything together and continue to cook until sausage is heated through.

This is 6 ingredients, 1 pan, and so easy.  A great mid-week meal solution and not unhealthy if you use a natural turkey sausage and limit the amount of olive oil you add to the pan.  Oh yea - and no tourists.  Bonus!!