Authentic Italian sausage and peppers is the perfect meal for a weeknight dinner. It’s a comfort food that’s extremely flavorful, finished in under 30 minutes, and has easy cleanup (it’s only one pan!)
This post is part of our Basic Cooking Skills series. Each week we will be doing a deep-dive into one basic cooking skill and a brand new recipe to accompany it to practice that newfound skill. Check back throughout the series for updates and new posts.
Italian Food = Ultimate Comfort Food
The Italian cuisine is the definition of comfort food. Savory sauces, flavorful meats, fresh vegetables, and delicious pastas or potatoes make up the foundation of most Italian meals.
And they are so hard to pass up!
There are limitless combinations of these four items to create extraordinary Italian meals in your own home:
- sauce
- meat or protein
- vegetables
- starch: pasta, potatoes
The perfect Combo for authentic Italian sausage and peppers
Authentic Italian sausage and peppers consists of:
- tomato sauce
- Italian sausage
- peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic
- whichever starch you would like!
Sausage and peppers can be served on bread as a sandwich, over pasta, or with a side of potatoes! The choice is yours.
(My preference is pasta 😉 )
How to: cook italian sausage
If you’re fortunate enough to grill, I would recommend grilling the italian sausage for utmost flavor. If remaining indoors, heat a pan over medium heat. I would recommend against using any added oil or butter because the sausages will release lots of grease.
Brown the sausages, about 2 minutes on each side. Set aside.
They will not be fully cooked and will continue cooking later in the dish
how to: prepare the vegetables
Slice thinly a variety of peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Dice garlic.
Find a can of diced tomatoes or chop fresh tomatoes if using.
how to: cook the vegetables
Begin adding the vegetables to the pan from most-dense to least-dense, allowing a few minutes of cooking time after each addition. This should equal roughly 10 minutes of cooking time.
Onions > peppers > mushrooms & garlic at the end
Season the vegetables with Italian seasoning and toss well.
Add the tomatoes and a splash of chicken broth.
how to: incorporate the italian sausage
Bring the heat down to a low simmer.
Return the Italian sausage to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.
A one pan meal in under 30 minutes!
Authentic Sausage and Peppers
Ingredients
- 2 spicy Italian sausage links
- 1 green bell pepper sliced
- 1 red bell pepper sliced
- 4-5 mushrooms sliced
- 3 cloves garlic diced
- 3 tbsp Italian seasoning equal parts basil, oregano, thyme/rosemary
- 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes (4-5 fresh tomatoes chopped)
- 1-2 tbsp chicken broth
Instructions
- Brown the Italian sausage over medium heat, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from pan.
- Add onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, adding olive oil if needed. Add bell peppers and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and mushrooms and cook for an additional 2 minutes, a total of about 10 minutes of cooking time for the vegetables.
- Seasoning the vegetables with Italian seasoning. Toss well.
- Add the tomatoes and chicken broth. Stir well.
- Return the Italian sausage to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Serve with pasta, potatoes, or on bread!
Customizations
- Sauce: Swap out the tomatoes for a cream sauce or lighter broth/wine sauce.
- Protein: The Italian sausage used can be sweet or spicy, whichever your preference. Cubed chicken or steak would taste great in this meal as substitutions. If you’re not a fan of the sausage casing, remove the casing and only use the ground sausage.
- Vegetables: Most vegetables would probably work well in this dish, such as any pepper variety, zucchini, squash, carrots, and asparagus.
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What are you favorite recipes using Italian sausage? I love the spicy sausage and am always looking for more! Share your thoughts in the comments below 🙂
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This looks lovely, I’d love to try this!
Let me know how it turns out 🙂
Oh my goodness, I need to make this ASAP! Looks so delish!! Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
I’m so glad you want to try it, please share how it turns out!
It looks so delicious! Surely going to try this soon!
Only thing I did differently was that I used diced tomatoes with green chiles because I bought the wrong one. It made it a little spicy but was delicious.!
Ooooo interesting idea, I think I would love it with green chilies for a little more heat!
And now I know what I’m cooking tonight for dinner, thanks!!
It looks delicious!
Lindifique
YAY exactly what I want to hear 🙂 I hope it turns out great for you!
I’m going to try to make this, this week. I love how many of your recipes are dairy free!!!
Thanks so much! I’ve never really noticed but we do try to limit our use of cream, especially is sauces!
That looks incredible! I’m big into making sausage pasta bake at the moment but I think the next time, I might try it with some peppers as well!
Sausage and peppers are such a great combo!
Wow this looks delicious! I love meals like this when the temperature changes!
Rosie
It’s so tasty and comforting!
Yummy!!!!!! This is a very delicious comfort food. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Thank you for reading!
Absolutely perfect recipe. And I’ll eat more vegetables instead of adding a starch. Thanks for sharing,
I love how it’s easily customizable!
This is a phenomenal recipe! My husband loves Italian sausage, but the meal often becomes less exciting without any vegetables or additional flavoring. I like the idea of peppers and mushrooms (I’m highly allergic to onion) and serving it over pasta. Great idea! So yummy!
I’m so glad, the peppers and mushrooms add such great flavor!
Actually, this is perfect timing and I would swap out the pasta for bread rolls – Italian sausage hot dogs are going to be perfect for Hallowe’en, thank you! x
That’s such a great idea!
This looks delicious. I love the fact it can be done in one pan too.
One pan meals make cooking so much easier!
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