Sausage and Peppers Non-Italian Style

My grandfather was Sicilian, and I LOVE Italian food. You might have seen my recent post from Cefalu, Sicily where I cooked a meal in a convent by the sea. Having everything on hand EXCEPT Italian sausage posed a problem when I had a craving for sausage and peppers: go out and buy some or adapt and use the sausage I already had. This sausage came from a French Country Recipe and had tarragon, shallots, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, hardly an Italian recipe. So what did I do? I got excited! Here's the recipe for a comfort food sort of mood:

ON THE CUTTING BOARD:



Sausage, parmigiano reggiano cheese, 1 small onion, 3/4 green pepper, 6 cloves of garlic, anchovies, sun dried tomatoes, 1/2 can of San Marzano whole tomatoes (in the jar in photo), basil, oregano, salt, pasta (bowtie, penne, rigatoni, ziti, paccheri)

STEP ONE:







Start a large pot of water for the pasta. Slice the green pepper into strips. Heat 1 T. of olive oil in a large skillet and add an anchovy when the oil is hot. When the anchovy "melts" into the oil, add the green pepper and cook for a few minutes. Cut the onion into rings, slice three sun dried tomatoes into thick strips and mince the garlic. Add to the green peppers and cook for a few more minutes until the onions start to soften and brown.
Add 1/2 tsp. basil, 1/2 tsp. oregano and 1/2 tsp. salt.

STEP TWO:






Cook the sausage in a separate pan to extract much of the grease and then add to the onion and pepper mixture.  Cook the pasta for 7 minutes and drain when finished.

STEP THREE:









Add the tomatoes with sauce to the skillet and mash them. Cook the sauce for another 5 minutes until cooked through. Place a layer of pasta on the bottom of a baking dish and spoon some of the sauce on top followed by a grating of the cheese. Continue layering the pasta, sauce and cheese until you've used almost all of the pasta. Use the rest to make a design on top if desired.

STEP FOUR:



Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes then turn it up to 450 for the last few minutes to give the top pieces of pasta a little crunch. Garnish with basil (I still have some in the garden) and serve.

ALLA VOSTRA SALUTE!