Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Peppers

An easy recipe for Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Peppers that simmers all day in a chunky tomato sauce or use your favorite pasta sauce. Perfect over rigatoni or on hoagie rolls topped with mozzarella cheese!

If you follow me on Facebook, which I sure hope you do, all month long I’ve been sharing my favorite slow cooker recipes for Crock-tober! I am such a big fan of crock pot meals. I never know if I should call them crock pot or slow cooker meals. What do you call them? Crock pot specifically refers to the vessel and brand, Crock Pot which most people commonly think of when cooking a slow cooker meal, regardless of the brand of crock pot or slow cooker they are using. I tend to go back and forth between both names when I refer to a specific crock pot or should I say slow cooker recipe. But one thing is for sure regardless what I call the recipe I always cook it in my Crock Pot!

While a lot of people love cooking in their Instant Pot or pressure cooker, whatever you may call it (seems like the same thing as crock pot vs. slow cooker, right?) I’m still a die hard slow cooker gal. Who’s with me? I own a Instant Pot and I do use it on occasion but there is just something about slow cooking I love. Instant Pot can give you similar results quickly opposed to using the slow cooker all day, but I just love the fact that I can pop something quickly in my slow cooker in the morning and have it simmering all day in my Crock Pot. If I’m out and about and I come home the smell of some good home cooking fills the air. Plus I love the fact that dinner is cooking and it’s one less thing I have to worry about doing!

So back to Facebook. Yesterday I had a live chat on Facebook (again, hopefully you follow me there so you always catch me, plus stay up to date with new recipes, etc…) and I made this Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Peppers. I just love this recipe! It’s really one of my favorites! It’s super easy and simmers all day in a chunky tomato sauce. I love to serve it over rigatoni or similar pasta or another favorite is on hoagie rolls topped with mozzarella cheese! YUM! YUM! These are also good on brioche rolls! I get the brioche rolls from Aldi and they are pretty tasty! Just saying!

You could certainly dump in a jar of your favorite marinara or pasta sauce but I always use a simple can of crushed tomatoes with just a few simple spices plus my secret ingredient – fresh basil leaves! It just makes this sauce taste fresh. It’s so good you guys and is the perfect compliment to the sausage and peppers! If you’ve always made a similar recipe with pasta sauce, next time try it this way! It’s super yummy!

Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Peppers

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An easy recipe for Slow Cooker Italian Sausage and Peppers that simmers all day in a chunky tomato sauce. Perfect over rigatoni or on hoagie rolls topped with mozzarella cheese!

• Yield: 5

Ingredients

• 1 package mild Italian sausage links (5–6 links)
• 3 bell peppers, sliced (3 pack of bell peppers)
• 2 white or sweet onions, sliced
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1/2 t dried oregano or Italian seasoning
• 5–6 fresh basil leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5–6 hoagie rolls, for serving (optional)
• 1 1/2 C shredded mozzarella cheese, for serving (optional)
• 12 oz cooked rigatoni, for serving (optional)

Alternatively you can use a jar of pasta sauce (I like to use Prego Traditional) instead of the crushed tomatoes and seasonings. Also another time saver is to not add the sliced peppers and onions in the slow cooker and just get a frozen bag of sliced peppers and onions and heat up in the microwave or stove and serve separately.

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Instructions

1. Place sausage links in the bottom of slow cooker.
2. Top with sliced peppers and onions.
3. Pour crushed tomatoes and dried oregano or Italian seasoning on top.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add basil leaves on top of tomatoes.
6. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours.
7. Serve on hoagie rolls topped with shredded mozzarella cheese or over rigatoni.

Notes

I didn’t put exact measurements for salt and pepper since it really depends on what brand of crushed tomatoes you use. I tend to use no salt when possible so I use a little more salt. If you use a brand that may already have salt in it you may want to use less. What I suggest is start by adding a little, maybe 1/4 t or so and you can always add more at the end if needed.