To wrap up our posts on Mario Puzo’s masterpiece, The Fortunate Pilgrim, we thought we’d share our grandma’s classic recipe for sausage and peppers.

‘Gino relaxed and ate, the fatty sausage, the oily pulpy peppers blending together deliciously on his hungry palate.’

Grandma used to make this with luganega sausage, which we affectionately called ‘luganga’ at home. Luganega is common across northern Italy. It’s a thin sausage sold in a coil instead of links. It’s sometimes referred to as ‘salsiccia a metro’ or ‘sausage by the meter’ because you can buy it by length.

I recently learned that luganega dates back to the Roman period. According to the Oxford Companion to Food, legionaries and slaves from the Lucania region of southern Italy brought the sausage to Rome. Who knew!

Grandma served sausage and peppers either with hot polenta or just a crust of bread and salad. Either way it’s amazing, so enjoy!

 

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SAUSAGE AND PEPPERS

Servings 4
Author Rose Rossi

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lb Italian sausage
  • 2 large onions
  • 2 large red peppers
  • 2 large green peppers
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Cook sausage in pan with olive oil over medium heat. When browned on all sides, remove from heat and slice into 1-2 inch pieces.

  2. Add butter to the olive oil in the pan you used to cook the sausages. Add onions, salt, pepper, dried oregano and dried basil. Cook on low to medium low for 5 minutes.

  3. Add all the peppers and the garlic. Combine and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

  4. Add the white wine and cook for a minute or two.

  5. Return sausages to the pan, stir and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until everything is tender and combined. Taste and adjust seasoning.