When I was a kid, we shared a house with my maternal grandparents. My Nana Benford was a tiny little Italian lady with a big attitude and unmatched skills in the kitchen. She had six kids, my mom included. With so many mouths to feed, nana knew how to stretch a buck and “Poor Man’s Sausage Supper” was one of her favorites. I make it for my husband over rice or on a roll in a sandwich. He loves it. If you’re blind or visually impaired, don’t be afraid of cooking sausage. You really can’t screw it up and it’s relatively cheap. This recipe will allow you to make an easy meal without breaking the bank!
Grab a deep sauté pan and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add your onions and let them begin to cook. Depending on your vision, you want the onions to become translucent in appearance. However, if you have no vision, rely on your nose and sense of touch when cooking. As the onion smell becomes more pungent, this means the cooking process is happening. Throw in your sliced bell peppers and allow them to cook with the onions.
Use a wooden spoon to continuously stir the mixture, ensuring the ingredients don’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper as you go. When you think your onions and peppers are done, take a fork and see if you can easily slice through a pepper. If you can, you’re good to go. Remove the onions and peppers from the sauté pan and place on a plate lined with a paper towel. This will soak up any additional oil.
Ingredients:
1 Package of Spicy Italian Sausage
2 Sliced Bell Peppers (Yellow, Orange or Green)
1 Onion, Peeled
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Hero Rolls or Serve Over Rice
In the same pan you cooked the onions and peppers, place your Italian sausage links. Make sure you do this with the burner off! Once you have your links in the pan, turn on the heat to medium high. You must cook each side of the links and each link has four sides. I use a voice activated cooking timer and set it for 3 minutes a side. Each time the timer goes off, I use a pair of cooking tongs to turn the sausage. After 12 minutes, remove the links from the pan and let cool. YOU’RE NOT DONE YET!
Once the links have cooled, slice them into pieces (similar to how you would slice a banana). Then throw the sausage, the onions and peppers back into the same pan you’ve been cooking with. Using your wooden spoon, make sure you move the pieces of sausage throughout the pan to ensure they are being cooked and coated with the onions and peppers. Season again with salt and pepper. After approximately 6 to 8 minutes, all your sausage should be thoroughly cooked and you can enjoy your “Poor Man’s Sausage Supper.”
