Italian Subs With Sausage and Peppers

By Sam Sifton

Italian Subs With Sausage and Peppers
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Rating
4(526)
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This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

For these subs, you'll start with the onions, slicing two big sweet ones and setting them in a hot pan with a couple of gurgles of olive oil. Season with salt, black pepper and a shake of red-pepper flakes, then cook over medium heat, stirring and tossing occasionally so that they go golden and soft. This’ll take a while. Add a couple of sliced bell peppers to the pan, and continue cooking, still stirring and tossing, until they begin to wilt. Set the vegetables aside. About halfway through, set some sweet Italian sausages in another hot, oil-slicked pan, and cook them through until crisp and brown on the exterior, turning often.

Split your sub rolls (I like the sesame-seeded variety here) and scrape out a little of the interior from each. Load one side of each roll with some of the onions and peppers, the other with a sausage. Top with mozzarella, put the open sandwiches on a sheet pan and slide them all into a hot oven for five minutes or so, until the cheese is melted and the bread is lightly toasted. Fold together and serve.

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Comments

Ken

I push the mostly-cooked onions and pepper to the sides and cook the sausages in the same pan, a heavy cast iron skillet. I cover the pan to speed the process for the sausage. If I want cheese on top (not needed), I prefer provolone. Here in the South the only real problem is the lack of good choices for rolls. I grew up in Philly and every grocery store has good hoagie rolls, and the Italian bakeries have great ones. Sigh.

SJ Malo

Boil the sausage for 8-10 mins first. This will allow the filling to cook through, which preserves the juices without bursting the casing. Then you can throw it in a scorching hot pan briefly for browning. Or, just eat it boiled.

big D

Never boil sausage. A light simmer is fine then crisp up on a lightly oiled cast iron or carbon steel pan.

me

Add a little sherry vinegar at the end.

Ronit

Red vinegar tablespoon

hdwah

Just Improvise !! Test your creative cooking talents.

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