I Call These “Brenda’s Italian Sausage Sandwiches.” They are an Awesome & Quick Recipe to use up Your Garden Tomatoes & Herbs!
This recipe is so easy it’s almost NOT a recipe! My Sister-in-law makes the best Italian sausage, pepper & onion sandwiches on a crusty hot baked roll. I intended to replicate her recipe for dinner using fresh garden goodies! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any bell peppers in my garden, and the ones at the meat market looked soggy and sad. I didn’t let that stop me, no way!
If you follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, you’ve already seen these delicious messy sandwiches! Customize your sandwiches by adding sliced peppers, hot or bell, or whatever you are harvesting from your garden! I’m using up my Roma tomatoes from the garden, but you can use jarred spaghetti sauce!
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If you are missing my Favorite FoodieBook Friday posts, sorry but I don’t have anything new yet. Unrelated to sausage sandwiches… I finally finished two Hailey Edwards books and started Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews. Ilona Andrews (IA aka House Andrews) is a husband & wife writing team and one of my top favorites.
Sweep of the Blade is from their Innkeeper series which they have been writing about once a year, live, as in we fans (the Book Devouring Horde – BDH) read a chapter at a time as soon as they (House Andrews) have written it! They post each chapter on their blog! It’s an amazing experience to read something as soon as these wonderful writers have written and posted it, one chapter at a time! We (the BDH) are known to break the internets by refreshing our feeds on Fridays! Once they finish all the chapters online, they edit and release as an eBook. It’s fun to read the eBook version and find new content from the online version!
In honor of the Innkeeper series, I’m working on a banana coffee scone recipe using a combo of banana & coffee, like Grandma’s Banana Coffee Cake. In case you didn’t know, coffee is to vampires as stiff martinis are to humans! At least in this series! Imagine all the vampires getting buzzed on Banana-Java? Java-Banana? Espresso Glazed Banana Scones.
Easy Italian Sausage Sandwiches


Back to these Italian sausage sandwiches… these are quick, easy, and delicious! My recipe is made with fresh tomatoes, but you could even use spaghetti sauce instead! They can be a hot mess to eat, but a delicious hot mess!

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Brenda’s Italian Sausage, Onion and Tomato Sandwiches
Equipment
- baking pan
- knife
Ingredients
- 4 Italian Sausages
- 6 fresh tomatoes I used a bunch of small ones, add as many as you want! They will cook way down! Substitute with 2-3 cans of diced tomatoes, like these.
- 1 onion Large, or two small, or as many as you want!
- 1 tbsp Basil Fresh, or a teaspoon of dried. If you have oregano in your garden, put some of that in too!
- 2 Garlic Cloves Sliced
- 2 tbsp Wine Optional: Or add just a little water to get it all going.
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil Optional, but I like to drizzle it over the veggies.
- 4 Rolls Sausage or sub buns. The crustier the better! These are a tad messy so they need a sturdy roll or bun.
Optional Ingredients
- 2 Bell peppers Sliced
Instructions
- Cut onions into slices.
- Slice or chop the garlic and basil.
- Chop the tomatoes into wedges or large chunks
- Toss the onions, garlic, tomatoes, basil together in a pan.
- Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle a pinch of salt and add the wine.
- Nestle the sausages on top. (Pictured: I only had 3 sausages.)
- Cover lightly with foil or a lid and bake in a 425° oven for about a half an hour. I "baked" mine outside on my grill!
- Remove foil and stir the veggies. Flip the sausages over and nestle them back in the veggies.
- Toast the buns in the over alongside the veggie and sausage pan until lightly browned and crusty. Keep an eye on them!
- Continue cooking uncovered until veggies are tender and the sausages are browned on top, about fifteen more minutes or so.
- Serve the sausages with the veggies on the rolls with extra sauce. I find they are easier to eat if you allow them to cool for about ten minutes. Either serve whole sausages or slice the sausages in half lengthwise.
Notes
Nutrition
If you are looking for recipes to use fresh produce, try grain bowls, they are so easy you don’t even need a recipe! When I have a ton of tomatoes in my garden I make and freeze roasted tomato sauce, and I use zucchini in my Copycat J. Alexanders Carrot Cake!