Sausages with sweet peppers and onions is the perfect antidote to the cold, rainy day blues. They taste pretty darn good on a hot summer day and I have been known to enjoy them in the evenings, regardless of the weather.

This recipe serves 4 and to properly cook this dish, you want to allow enough time (1 hour) to cook the sausages over a low heat. If in a hurry, however, you can rush the process; but be warned that your house won’t smell nearly as delicious.

Ready

• 2 lbs Italian sausage (I prefer spicy)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, chopped (red, green and or yellow)
• few dashes of olive oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed or diced
• salt and pepper to taste
• toasted hot dog bun (optional)
• mustard (also optional)

Set

• 1 frying pan with lid (I recommend cast iron)
• 2nd frying pan

Go

1. Add a dash of olive oil to frying pan and cook sausage over low heat for about 1 hour. Turn every twenty minutes or so to prevent sausages from burning on one side.
2. Add a touch of olive oil to the second frying pan. Add onions and sweat for 10 minutes over a medium low heat.
3. Add chopped peppers and garlic and sauté for good while longer. Keep cooking until the onions turn sweet and translucent and the peppers nice a soft. The longer you sauté them the tastier they get.
4. Salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add sausage to hot dog bun.
6. Add pepper and onions to sausage.
7. Add mustard to pepper and onions
8. Add entire concoction to mouth.
9. Enjoy!

What you should know

If you want to get fancy you can serve the sausages in a French baguette or some crusty Italian bread with the peppers and onions draped over the top. Some truly pretentious folk have been known to add ketchup and mustard to the mix. I believe the rules of etiquette require using the finest china available on such occasions.

True culinary adventurers may choose to add 1 chopped jalapeño or another hot pepper along with the bell peppers, but they do so at their own risk.