Nothing wrong with hearty food in summer: sausage and peppers

We get into this mindset as the weather gets warmer that we eat "lighter food." You know, things like, oh, ice cream, and cold pesto pasta salads, and potato salad with mayonnaise and so on and so forth.

I don't mean to be sarcastic there. I'm just trying to make the point that if you look underneath the "hype" we DO in fact eat a fair amount of food that is hardly light and airy during the warm months. There isn't anything light about a barbecued steak, or a boiled lobster. But you know - there's no need to apologize for eating this kind of food. It's about balance. And ultimately, it's a question of "how much" did you eat, "what " went on it, and so forth.

So with this in mind, I put forth, unapologetically, a recipe for sausage and peppers, one of my favorite dishes, and one which I make rather infrequently. The reason I make it infrequently is the peppers: peppers in season cannot be beat. Peppers out of season, from Holland, or South America, or wherever those garish neony lanterns come from, are a disaster waiting to happen. The only thing I can say good about them is they are refreshing.

Goddess of vegetables Nevia is putting forward some early sweet peppers these recent weeks, and our friend James is coming to dinner tonight. To serve James sausage is somehow right, and somehow redundant. If you knew him, you'd understand. In any event, with the craving for sausage in my mind, and probably his, and probably G uy's, I put this forward.

When I make this dish, I plan on one small spring onion, or half of a storage onion per person. I also use one pepper per person, and two sausages. That's a pretty nice sized portion, so we'll have something simple with it, like polenta and steamed green beans (I will be coming back to "green beans" in the future. We don't call them "string beans" anymore, because they don't have strings.).

When cooking something like pork sausage, or any kind of pork product, people make a common mistake. Since this is "pork," that means it's fatty, and you don't need any fat to cook it. Proceeding in that way is a pathway to burned meat, and an unpleasant dish, and perhaps ruining a pan forever. No, just because something is fatty doesn't mean that it needs no fat for cooking. With the exception of something REALLY rich and fatty, like foie gras (which is essentially duck butter in my book, and worth every calorie), anything needs some fat to get it started. And, keep in mind that "modern" pork is not as fatty as we've been led to believe.

So, first I chop the onions, and then I slice the peppers into fairly thick slices. I put this aside as I address the sausage. I slick my pan with olive oil, and heat it up. When it's hot , but not smoking hot, in go the sausages. I like to use a mix of sweet and hot sausage, but you choose this.

I brown the sausage slowly. Take your time to develop the flavor. In this first step, all you want to do is give them color, and also give your fat some flavor. This, to me, is the secret of making this a truly great dish.

When you've browned the sausage on all sides, remove it to a plate and k eep it warm. Take a look at the fat in the pan. If it looks excessive, toss some. If it looks like you need more, add more. But take a minute and notice that wonderful brown stuff, the "fond" in your pan. Think of the flavor there, and what it's going to do to your vegetables, which you're going to add now. Onions first, with a sprinkle of salt, for about two minutes, and then the peppers, for another two minutes or so. Stir them all together. Then, make a decision about yours sausages: you can cut them into smaller pieces, which will make them cook faster, or keep them whole. Put them right on top of the vegetables, lower the heat, and cover the pan. Check after about five minutes. What you're looking for is the point where the peppers get soft, but not too soft. It may take five minutes, or ten minutes. The sausages won't overcook and the vegetables will pick up the wonderful flavor of your sausages.

You DO need a big pan for this. You can use a big dutch oven too. What you want is enough surface area for everything.

This is a wonderful , satisfying meal on many levels. If you have a non-carb eater, like my friend Chris, you can put it in front of him without a qualm . And if you're serving it to my crowd, you'll put it on something like pasta or polenta, or just layer it on a big piece of bread, lean foward, and have one of the best sandwiches ever.

I must admit that, normally when I write these things, I can do it dispassionately. But this one has left me very hungry