This recipe is similar to Italian sausages we love to order for Christmas Eve from the Roma Café. It’s easy to make in the crockpot and the long cook time really allows the flavors of the peppers, onion, garlic and tomatoes to gently flavor the sausage. I added an extra step and baked the Italian sausage in the oven before I added it to the crockpot, I did this to cut the fat in the recipe, clearly it’s not a low fat recipe but baking the sausage in the oven allowsa bit of the fat to bake out. If you want to make this as you head out the door in the morning, the sausage can be baked the night before and tossed in the refrigerator until the next morning. The peppers and tomatoes almost disappear as they cook until they are literally falling apart tender.
2 pounds Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bell peppers, chopped
1/4 chopped flat leaf parsley
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
14 ounce can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup dry red wine or beef broth
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cut sausage into 3 inch pieces and toss onto baking sheet coasted with nonstick spray. Cook for 30 minutes. Drain fat from baking sheet and add sausage to crock pot. Add the remainder of ingredients to the crockpot and cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 or 9 hours. If you have the time, let it cook even longer, it just keeps getting better the longer it cooks. This reheats beautifully and is great served along side pasta or serve on crusty French bread for a delicious sandwich. This sausage is also nice to cut into even smaller pieces and serve as an appetizer.
Finally the real Christmas tree is up, more holiday px to follow. Karen
2 Peas in a Blog 