Name: Smothered Italian Sausage
Total time: 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: ¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more (optional) for serving; 8 sweet Italian sausage links (2½ lb./1.1 kg); 3 red bell peppers, sliced; 2 medium red onions, sliced; 5 garlic cloves, sliced; 1 bunch broccolini (2 cups/200 g), ends trimmed and cut into 1" pieces; 2 bunches spinach (4 oz./115 g total); Crushed red pepper flakes; 1 28-oz./794-g can crushed tomatoes; 1 bunch fresh basil (1½ oz./45 g), leaves picked; 1 12-oz./355-ml jar mild banana peppers, undrained; Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Smothered Italian Sausage in deep skillet

Photo by Eric Wolfinger

This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. I made it one night with no time and no plan. I opened the fridge and grabbed everything that seemed at least vaguely to go together. I took some sausage from the freezer, some peppers on their last legs, some broccoli rabe, and a couple odds and ends of onions. Add to that the remnants of a few open cans of tomatoes and… voilà, classic sausage and peppers. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.

The longer this sits in the fridge, the more delicious it gets. Reheat it and then throw it on a hoagie or on a mound of mashed potatoes or with polenta.

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