Sausage and Peppers

Years ago I worked at a little Italian restaurant in Minnesota. The owner had the most incredible sauage and peppers recipe. Now, I'm generally not a big fan of cooked peppers, especially when they're pretty much the entire recipe. But the sauce she created was just heaven in a dish. Her cook called it "Liquid Gold." It is so velvety and lucious. I never watched him make it and it wasn't a recipe that was ever written down. I'd had the sauce on my mind for years and finally tracked down the owner who is now in Florida. She really didn't have a recipe, just told me what she used, but no amounts.

Whenever I use a pepper and have some left over, I always freeze them for soups and chili. Well, my peppers were piling up so I thought I'd give it a shot. I had a lot of orange peppers, but generally I would just use red peppers and a little bit of green. So this isn't really a recipe, more of a guesstimate of what I used. Next time I have a surplus of peppers, I'll pay attention and provide a more precise recipe!

CHAR'S SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS

1 large sweet onion, julienned

2-3 red peppers, depending on size, julienned

1 small green pepper, julienned

6 medium cloves garlic, minced

small can (6 oz) tomato paste

Carlo Rossi Paisano wine (I've only ever seen this in those HUGE glass jugs).......I'm not sure how much I used....could have been about 3/4 of a regular-sized bottle)

Italian sausage (I used turkey Italian sausage)

Saute onion and garlics in olive oil and butter until tender. Add peppers and cook about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste and wine. Bring to a boil then turn down to a low simmer. Cook undercovered for a couple of hours until sauce is reduced by at least half. I ended up adding about a Tablespoon of sugar (Char said she added salt, but I left that out).

Saute the sausage. I cooked two whole links, but I think next time I will cut them in chunks. Add sausage and drippings to sauce. Simmer about another half hour.

I served this on penne pasta along with a Caesar salad and an Italian roll. This amount would make 3-4 servings. And believe me, it's just as good the next day!