Well, it’s still nasty cold in Ohio, and we’re still eating “winter” foods. But, here’s one of my favorite recipes for when I’m in a rush, and want some tasty comfort food. This was inspired by Jacques Pepin in his Fast Food My Way cookbook, which I love. But here’s my spin on this great recipe:
Sausage & Potato Packets
3 medium onions, cut into wedges
16 whole garlic cloves
1 or more pounds of small, gourmet potatoes, such as fingerlings (try to find some that have a blend of yellow, purple, and red), washed and cut in half, not peeled
2 lbs. pre-cooked sausage (I like to use smoked turkey sausage, but any kind will do), cut into bite-size chunks
High quality organic olive oil
Course sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Sprigs of fresh rosemary
Freshly chopped parsley
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange heavy duty foil on a large cookie sheet, with enough of a flap to fold over the top of the ingredients and completely seal around with a few inches to spare. Place the onions, garlic, potatoes, and sausage in the foil, and drizzle with the olive oil. Toss the ingredients around with your hands to coat, and then make sure that it’s evenly distributed in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper , and lay the rosemary sprigs on top. Seal the foil packet, and bake for 1 hour. When done, carefully open the packet, and sprinkle with parsley. You can carefully transfer the packet, or the ingredients onto a platter, but we just serve ourselves directly from the pan, sizzling hot!
Now for some of my “helpful hints:”
- While one, large packet is very easy to make and clean up, we’ve made individual packets, too, varying the ingredients (e.g., using different types of sausage, omitting rosemary, etc.).
- Jacques calls for using fresh sausage, which I don’t like to do because of the fat that is rendered, and because I’m nervous about it being fully cooked, which is why I use pre-cooked sausage.
- The juices that are created from these ingredients are sinfully good, so make sure you get a great, crusty loaf of bread.
- This is a meal in a packet, but you can serve a green salad with a light vinaigrette to go with it, if you’re feeling healthy.
Bon Appetit!
This recipe is perfect for my household. My hubby is a meat and potatoes sort of guy and I don’t like to spend lots of time in the kitchen.
These ingredients are plentiful in our Ohio stores right now too, unlike lots of produce that we get shipped in from out west that have been hit hard by the recent bad weather.
I’m a garlic lover and 16 garlic cloves will suit me just fine but those who don’t care for it may want to proceed carefully. Maybe they aren’t very strong when used whole? Like I mentioned before, I don’t spend much time in the kitchen so what do I know… lol.
Thanks for suggesting pre-cooked sausage because the other type scares me, too. I will definitely try this recipe next week and I’ll be coming back here for more recipes. Thanks!
Diana, thanks for your wonderful comment. The garlic definitely gets sweet and mushy after an hour in the oven; you can hardly recognize it or taste it. Good luck!
You are welcome. I am anxious to try it and will let you know how it turns out for us next week. Have a good evening!
I made this recipe last night and it was delicious. I had never tried the fingerling potatoes and they were a hit with my husband especially. He wants to plant some in his garden this week. I used a pound of smoked turkey sausage and a pound of hot italian. I preferred the turkey but hubby liked the hot italian best so we mixed and matched. I’ll be making this again.