Friday, September 3, 2010

Sausage and Pepper Heros

This recipe was great. I made it last night for the first time. It was delicious! Easy!! and Messy!!!. I got the recipe from Carmine's Restaurant in NYC. They have a cookbook (worth it's money-- we have made many, many recipes from it and like each one of the them). So here is the recipe.

12 3-oz sausages
5 cups marinara sauce
4 cups peppers and onions (I used one red, yellow and orange pepper; plus a sweet and a red onion)
4 crispy hero rolls

1. Preheat oven to 375'
2. Cut the sausages almost in half lengthwise. Place them, cut side up, in a large shallow casserole or baking pan and pour marinara sauce over them. Bake them for 12-15 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling hot and the sausages are heated through.
3. In a large saute pan, warm up the peppers and onions over med-high heat, stirring, for 4-5 minutes or until they are hot. As the peppers and onions heat cut them with a fork or lightly mash them to make them easier to eat.
4. Meanwhile, slice the rolls in half lengthwise, without cutting all the way through. Arrange the rolls cut sides up, on a baking sheet and toast them under a broiler for 2-3 minutes or until slightly brown.
5. To assemble each sandwich, spread about 3 TBSP of marinara sauce on each half of the roll. Place 3 butterflied sausages on each roll. Top the sausages with 1 cup of the peppers and onions. Fold the other half of the roll over the sausages. Cut the sandwich in half and serve.

Note: I would put the onions and peppers on before the sausages. That way they don't fall off as easily. That would be my only change. Otherwise it was really, really good. I also think I cooked mine stuff closer to 20 minutes (sausage, sauce, onions and peppers).

If you are in NYC and you need a good place to eat, I highly, highly, highly recommend this restaurant: Carmine's. It is right in the middle of Broadway/Time Square area. Well worth the visit. There was 5 adults and our total cost of the evening (food, appetizers, salads and 2 glasses of wine) was $125. I think that is really good for NYC and dinner out. I would recommend the following items to try: Veal in a Lemon & Butter Sauce (out of this world)( you can also use chicken instead, if you don't eat veal) and Shrimp in Red Sauce. That is what we ordered and every ounce was GONE! I would go back in a heartbeat and am so thankful I purchased the cookbook while I was there. We have used it over and over again. (And yes Michelle, you can borrow the cookbook if you want).