The thing I miss most about summers where lived for most of my life is the festivals.  Every little town had a festival to celebrate something: First Town Days, Canal Days, Corn Harvest Festival, Italian-American Festival, the county fair, Clay Week, Railroad Days, and I am sure I forgot some.  And of the course the best thing about the festivals is the food.  My personal favs are fair fries sprayed with vinegar, DiRusso’s Italian Sausage sandwiches, and fresh lemonade.  Most of the festivals I’ve encountered in my new town are either way over crowded with few food offerings or they offer all sorts of foods I don’t associate with fairs (who wants to eat chicken fried rice at a fair?)  or just plain too hot to eat while you are there (hello? county fair in the south in August? Ugh!)  I’ve been missing the fair food the past couple of years.  So I decided to try and make some Italian Sausage sandwiches worthy of the fair.  Stupidly simple but I was pleased that I got the flavor right, I thought I would share.

(You  know my recipes are flexible so feel free to make changes. I’m just sharing what I use and like.)

Italian Sausage Sandwiches

1 package Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage

1 sweet yellow onion

1 green bell pepper

1 15oz can tomato sauce (not spaghetti sauce)

3/4 Cup lager beer (Yuengling works well as does Sam Adams)

2 cloves garlic, minced

oregano

crushed red pepper flakes

Shredded mozz cheese

Buns

Grill the sausages for 4 or 5 minutes on each side to brown.

Slice onion and pepper.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Then add tomato sauce, beer, garlic, a couple of shakes of oregano, and a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes (if you are new here, we don’t measure much).  Add this to simmer on med-low and finish drinking the left over beer.  When sausage comes off grill, put them in the pan with sauce.  Cover and allow to simmer for another 10-15 minutes – until sausage is cooked through.

Cut buns and put some shredded cheese in the bottom.  Add sausage, peppers, onions, and  a little of the sauce.  Then pretend you are eating in the shadow of the ferris wheel.

Head over to Southern Fairytale for lots of Mouthwatering Monday recipes.