Sausage and peppers — Italian sweet sausage (or hot, or a combination) seared in a skillet, then simmered with sliced bell peppers (green, red, and/or yellow) and onions until the peppers are soft and the sausage is cooked through — is the Italian-American street food served at every San Gennaro festival, every street fair, and every Italian-American block party. The dish is on a hero roll at the fair; it's on a plate over pasta at home. The technique is nothing more than sear, simmer, and serve — and the result is greater than the sum of its three ingredients.
Italian sausage links (sweet, hot, or mixed) browned in a skillet, then combined with sliced bell peppers and onion in the rendered sausage fat, simmered with a splash of water or wine until the peppers are soft, the onion is translucent, and the sausage is cooked through. The peppers should be soft and slightly caramelised, not crunchy. The onion should be sweet and melted. The sausage should be juicy with a browned exterior.
1) Brown the sausage first — the fond from the sausage is the flavour base. 2) Cook the peppers and onions in the sausage fat — not in fresh oil. 3) Simmer until the peppers are completely soft — crunchy peppers in this dish indicate insufficient cooking time. 4) Fennel seed — the signature spice of Italian sweet sausage — should be detectable in every bite.
The sausage-and-pepper hero: a split Italian roll, the sausage sliced or left whole, peppers and onions piled on. The juices from the peppers soak the bread. This is the festival sandwich. At home: over penne or rigatoni with the pepper-onion sauce as the pasta sauce. Or: on a bed of soft polenta with the juices ladled over.
Arthur Schwartz — Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food