Italian Sausage Sandwich

Afternoon everyone! It’s been some time ago that I started making hot sandwiches for Wednesday night dinners. Mostly because they’re easy to put together, take about 10 minutes to bake and are perfect to grab–n–go on our way to church. I wanted to do an Italian hot sandwich but for some reason our Walmart doesn’t carry the bulk Italian sausage(amongst other things). So we went with Italian links and went from there! Feel free to use any form of Italian sausage for this recipe, spicy, sweet, or mild.

 

The key to this great sandwich is to use the best ingredients you can get your hands on!

Yields 1 dozen sandwiches

6–8 links of Italian sausage, pan cooked or grilled

1 brick cream cheese, softened

2 Tblsp dried onion flakes

2 tsp dried minced garlic

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 Tblsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/4 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp dried thyme)

1 pinch of red pepper flakes, optional

1 small onion, thinly sliced

5–6 mini sweet peppers, thinly sliced

1 Tblsp butter

salt and pepper, for veggies

12 buns, any will do

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking pan with release foil. Either on the stove top cook sausage till nicely browned or grill. Set aside and allow the meat to rest.
In a medium saute pan, add thinly sliced onions and sweet peppers to melted butter. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with lid and let the veggies cook till fork tender. Remove from heat and keep covered until ready to use.
In a small bowl combine cream cheese with onion flakes, dried minced garlic, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, and red pepper flakes(if using). Spread this mixture on each bun half(top and bottom). Place bottom halves on the foil lined pan.  Slice each sausage link on the bias, or at a severe angle and not too terribly thick or thin. You should be able to get 5–6 slices out of each link.
Place three slices on each cream cheese bun half. Top with a onions and sweet peppers, and place the other bun half on top. Bake for 10 minutes or until buns are nicely crisp and serve with favorite sides of chips, fries, or tots and salad.

These are a huge hit, the family always scarfs them up, any leftovers are put in the fridge and warmed back up in the toaster oven or just eaten cold(I prefer them cold the next day). Even if you can;t grill out the links, pan cooking them does an excellent job.