County Fair Sausage Hoagies

Even before you enter the gate, the smells of the world's greatest food-- County Fair food--teases your senses. Funnel Cakes, Corn Dogs, fresh hand-cut fries, and the king of fair foods: a smothered Italian sausage. Savory sausage pairs with tender grilled peppers and onions on a pillowy soft roll.

The fair only comes once a year, but there's no reason to wait 12 months to enjoy this sandwich again!

Ingredients

1-1½ lb Fresh sausage in casing

1 Red bell pepper

1 Green bell pepper

1 Medium or ½ Large onion

2 Tbsp Oil or shortening

6 Hoagie rolls

Directions

Seed and slice RED BELL PEPPER, GREEN BELL PEPPER, and ONION. Set aside.

Prick SAUSAGES well with a knife or fork and arrange in a frying pan. Fry on medium-high 8-10 minutes.

Turn sausages and fry an additional 8-10 minutes.

Add PEPPERS and ONIONS and 1 cup WATER on top of sausages. Cover and continue to cook 8-10 minutes.

At this point the sausages are cooked through and safe to serve, but there's a few optional steps that bump the flavor and texture to the next level. Here's what I do...

Remove sausages to a plate and stir 2 Tbsp OIL or SHORTENING into the steamed peppers and onions and let them fry 1-2 minutes before removing from heat. This removes some of the extra moisture from the steamed veggies and caramelizes some of their sugars.

While the veggies fry, begin slicing the sausages lengthwise. Remove the fried veggies when they reach a level of color you like and place the sausages cut-side-down into the pan, searing the inside of the sausage 1 minute. This step originally came from paranoia about getting the sausages cooked all the way through, but I love the extra flavor and crunch it gives the sausages.

While browning the sausages and the peppers, use another skillet or griddle toast your hoagie rolls in about little butter. Like the additional browning on the sausages and peppers, this is completely optional but definitely worth the few extra seconds it takes.

Time to assemble! Arrange 2 sausage halves and a scoop of veggies on your hoagie roll. If desired, top with sliced cheese, mustard, nacho cheese, hot sauce, or horseradish. Enjoy!

Tips/add-ins

This is delicious made with Spicy or Mild/Sweet Italian Sausage, but I love the freshly ground and mildly seasoned whole-hog sausage from a local butcher.

Chop leftover sausages and peppers and scramble into eggs or shredded hash browns for a phenomenal breakfast.

Keep them in the crockpot for munching during the Big Game. Cook as directed, stopping before you split the sausages and stirfry the veggies. Toss in a crock pot with enough pizza or spaghetti sauce to cover and top with shredded cheese.

Chop cooked sausages into bite size pieces and serve with your favorite sauce over pasta. Go low-carb by using zucchini noodles and a cheese sauce.