Fork and Flame is a cooking blog from PdCToday founder Tino Kaltsas.  Spending time in the kitchen is one of his favorite hobbies, and although he rarely makes the same meal twice, he will be posting some of his meals here on PdCToday.com.

Today we’ll stay in the kitchen with a delicious meal that is pretty easy, looks great, and tastes even better.  It’s great over rice or pasta, and could also work for sandwiches, just leave the sausages whole instead of cutting them up.

Peppers and Sausage:

You’ll require two pans for this, a skillet and a larger saucepan or pot.  In my situation I used a deep electric skillet in place of a skillet on the stove.  It’s one of my favorite kitchen appliances; it’s versatile and easy to clean.

Here is the ingredient list, although I admit you can take some fairly wide liberties with this to tweak it to your liking, especially with the types and amount of tomatoes and other vegetables.

• 1 can (28 ounce) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (14 ounce) diced tomatoes
• 2 medium onions (1 diced, 1 sliced into wedges)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• dried basil (1 tablespoon)
• Italian seasoning ( 2 tablespoons)
• dried oregano (1 tablespoon) [I do at least 2 tablespoons actually, but I love oregano]
• sugar (1 tablespoon) [tastes great with out this as well, or add an extra tablespoon for a sweeter sauce]
• 4 bratwurst or Italian sausages [I used a pound or so of Piggly Wiggly's rope bratwurst, use whatever your favorite is]
• 3 peppers; red, yellow, or green; cut into strips [Red/orange/yellow peppers look nicer but green peppers are usually quite a bit cheaper]
• 1 jalapeno (optional) [one just adds a little bit of heat, use two for more heat or none if you prefer]
• olive oil (for sauteing)

In your saucepan, saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil, just until they are soft not brown.

Add the can of diced tomatoes along with the basil, Italian seasoning, oregano, and sugar.

Simmer this for about 20 minutes.  While this is simmering you can work on the sausage and vegetables in your skillet.

Cut your sausages into 3/4 inch pieces or so.  Brown the sausages in a little butter.  Or use beer, I did.

Add the peppers and onions (and jalapeno if you choose) and saute with a little olive oil.

Add the can of crushed tomatoes to your saucepan.  Simmer for a few minutes.

Add your sausage and vegetable mix to the saucepan. At this point depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce you may want to add an 8oz can of tomato sauce.  Mine was looking a bit thick so I did.  Simmer for another 10-15 minutes or so.

Serve over pasta or rice and top with a bit of shredded cheese.  I had Monterey Jack handy.  Pepperjack or mozzarella would be good too.