Dalla Mia Cucina Sausage and Pepper Scallopini

Peppers are a very common cooking ingredient used in my home. You will hear me often express my delight in smelling the aroma of peppers cooking, mingling with the other ingredients such as wine, pepper, mushrooms, herbs and tomatoes. I love the versatility of peppers and how many dishes you can create with them. Pasta and Sauteed Peppers are routinely cooked as one of our families favorite dishes.

Another one of my favorites, and I have to say it comes in a close second next to an Eggplant Ratatouille, is Sausage & Peppers. The way we cooked this in my home growing up is very similar to the way I continue cooking it today. We gave this dish the name Sausage & Pepper Scaloppini for the size of the sausage pieces we cut them into.

Scaloppini is often associated with veal and sometimes chicken. The pieces of meat are thinly sliced and or pounded with a mallet and dredged in flour and sauteed. The meat is most of the time left in whole pieces but sometimes cut into slices, and then cooked with mushrooms and a creamy sauce is made with butter and wine to saute it in. It is so delicious and aromatic, the meat is always so tender and flavorful.

For this recipe I used Romano cheese & garlic chicken, red, orange, yellow and green peppers, crimini mushrooms, shallots, Vidalia onions, garlic and fennel bulb. The herb choice for today�s recipe is fresh basil and flat leaf Italian parsley.

Ingredients
5-6 Italian sausage links of your choice sliced as thin as possible
2 red peppers thinly sliced
2 yellow peppers thinly sliced
2 orange peppers thinly sliced
2 green peppers thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 shallot thinly sliced
1 Vidalia or sweet onion very thinly sliced
2 cups Crimini Mushrooms dry cleaned and cut in half
1 bulb of fennel thinly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1-1/2 cups White Wine such as New Zealand East Coast Sauvignon Blanc by Black Box Wines
1 cup fresh basil chopped
� cup Italian flat leaf parsley chopped
Olive oil


Directions
In a large skillet cook sausage slices till lightly browned. Set aside in a bowl.
Add around 3 tablespoons olive oil to skillet, add peppers, season with kosher salt. Cook till soft and just starting to get color. When peppers are sofy add mushrooms. Cook just till aldente. When peppers and mushrooms are cooked add to the sausage that is set aside in a large bowl. *In the same skillet, if needed add a tablespoon more of olive oil, add onion, garlic, shallots and sliced fennel. Saut� till golden, soft and translucent.

*This is called a soffrito, it is the base for many Italian recipe preparations. Usually a soffrito consists of onion, celery and carrots but you can inter change your ingredients to your liking and preferences. I often times use fennel in place of celery and for a white soffrito, I�ll omit the carrot. Tom Colicchio calls this a Soffrito Blanco in his cookbook Craft of Cooking.

When your soffrito is cooked, add the sausage, peppers and mushrooms back into the skillet. Season with freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, salt and around � cup white wine. Turn heat to simmer and cook for 15 more minutes. Check your flavorings. Add your fresh basil and parsley, cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Scaloppini is wonderful over white rice or linguini. Fresh bread is a must to go with this dish to soak up all the wonderful juices.

I hope you enjoy this version of Scaloppini from my recipe box to yours.
Buon Appetito,
Laurie