One of the best meals is a steaming pot of Italian sausages cooked with sweet bell peppers. This adapted recipe was always known as Frank Sinatra’s Sausage and Peppers, from his mother Dolly, and became a kitchen staple after Dinah Shore put it into her cookbook “Someone’s In the Kitchen With Dinah” decades ago. It is the Italian version of soul food. Here it is adapted or the slow cooker without the addition of tomatoes. Serve with either lots of crusty bread to soak up the juices or long hoagie rolls and eat like a sandwich.
Cooker: Medium or Large Round or Oval
Machine Setting and Cook Time: Low Heat: 6 to 8 hours
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
3 large assorted colored bell peppers, such as red, yellow, orange
1 yellow onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2-pounds assorted sausages, such as hot and sweet Italian or chicken basil
1/3 cup dry red wine
Instructions
Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers, cut into large chunks, and place in the cooker. Add the onion and garlic and toss to combine. Sprinkle with a small amount of salt and pepper and thyme. In a skillet, warm the olive oil and brown the sausages over medium-high heat about 3 to 5 minutes, pricking with a fork over the surface; remove the sausages to the crock on top of the vegetables. Add the red wine and stir to gather up the oil and brown bits and pour into the crock. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Serve out of the crock with French rolls or pile on top of buttered noodles.
Excerpted from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. (c) 2005/2017, used by permission from the Harvard Common Press.
Recipe and text copyright Beth Hensperger 2017
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