Sausages and Peppers

Here's another of our Sunday favorites made better with fresh peppers from the garden:

5 Italian sweet sausages
4-5 Frying peppers - various colors (I only had red ones in the yard)
1 Onion - chopped
1  8oz can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbs olive oil

Poke holes in the sausages and brown in a large skillet over medium heat until they are cooked through, approx 30-40 minutes.   Meanwhile, chop the peppers and onions into bite-size pieces and set aside.  When the sausages are cooked, remove from the pan.  Add the olive oil and saute the vegeatbles for about five minutes.

 

While the peppers are frying, slice the sausages into bite-sized pieces.

Add the sausages to the peppers and mix well.  Cook for an additional five minutes or so.

Next, add the tomato sauce and mix well.  Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook until the peppers soften- about 15 minutes or so.

To finish it off, I like to grate some fresh Pecorino Romano cheese over the mixture and pour into your favorite pasta bowl.  Heat a nice loaf of Italian bread in the oven until crisp.  You can serve the bread on the side, or use it to make a sandwich.

This dish goes great with a fresh tomato-cucumber salad.

"Tutti a tavola a mangiare!" 
(Everyone to the table to eat)

Freaks and BLTs

I don't live anywhere near a nuclear plant, which nullifies any reasonable explanation as to why there always seems to be at least one showing of garden freaks every year.  So here they are in all their mutant splendor:

The eggplant looks like a tulip.  The tomatoes look like hearts, and the zucchini in the middle looks like a, umm, uh,,,,a microphone!


Here's a shot of a trio of heirlooms, very tasty this summer.

I've found that a nice-sized Zapotec is the perfect fit and taste for the BLT sandwiches.  I know I was down on this variety earlier in the year because the plants were HUGE and there was no fruit.  Too bad I failed to notice it was a "late-season" variety and ripped the other plant out.  It pays to read the label!

I yanked out the two eggplants.  The production was great, but I wasn't a fan of the thinner, Japanese-style. They seem to have more skin than actual flesh, and they just weren't worth the effort.  I'll go back to the larger Italian Black Beauty.