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Italian Sausage Sandwich

When I was growing up in the Bay Area, Togo's made some great Italian sausage sandwiches. They would slice the sausages lengthwise and let them cook in the tomato sauce all day, mingling the flavours. We would go in and ask them to dig up the sausages that were right at the bottom of the pan, nearest the heat source. They were wonderfully well cooked, with the sausage flavour in th sauce, and the sauce flavour in the sausage.

Then around 1990, everything changed. The franchisees started microwaving the sausage to cook them. This left the greasy with a tough casing. Then they would just spoon the sauce over the sausage in the sandwich. Let's just say that it just wasn't as satisfying, and other customers must have agreed because it has since disappeared of their menu. This recipe is my solution.

I make this with 3 pounds of sausage, because I have a large crockpot and there needs to be some depth to it when cooking for so long. If you have a smaller size you could easily reduce it to 1 or 2 pounds.

Servings:
About 20 eight-inch sandwiches
Preparation Time:
30 minutes prep, 6 hours in the crockpot
Tools
  • crockpot
  • large skillet
  • grill (optional)

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds sweet Italian sausage links
  • 2 pints baked tomato sauce or a jar of spaghetti sauce from the store
  • 2 bay leaves
  • red pepper flakes to taste
  • 1 medium yellow onion
  • 6 crimini mushrooms
  • fresh thyme and oregano to taste
  • sandwich rolls made out of sturdy bread
  • shredded hard Italian cheese
Cooking Instructions
Put your skillet over medium heat with about 3/4 inch of water in it. Simmer the sausages over medium heat, flipping them to cook both sides. Then either drain off the water and brown the sausage in the skillet, or take them out and put them on the grill, either way you want to pick up that wonderful browning that adds so much flavour. Be careful not to overcook them at this point, you are just firming up the meat so you can cut it, and adding to the taste.

Now cut the sausage, either in bias slices or cut it in half lengthwise the way that Togo's did it. Toss it in the crockpot with the sauce, bay leaves and pepper flakes. Set it on low and let it cook for about 5 hours, scraping the carmelized tomato sauce around the edges every hour (it's yummy if you don't let it burn).

Slice up your onion and mushrooms, and brown them in a little oil in your skillet. Add them to the crock pot with the fresh herbs. Cook for another half hour.

Spoon into your sandwich roll, sprinkle on the cheese, and enjoy.

Notes
This mix will easily keep in the fridge for a week, after that I put it into individual meal size baggies and freeze, where it keeps for months.
dave – Mon, 2007 – 06 – 18 13:18
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