I get a lot of Italian sausage from Publix, which is pretty good, for spaghetti. However, we picked up some Super Special Authentic stuff in Pittsburgh and we figure we should do them somehow that showcases the sausage itself. Should we just cut it into sections and pan-sautee? How do they do it up north?
I’m not from up north, but I made some awesome Italian sausage subs the other night.
I peeled the casings off, and browned them in a bit of olive oil. Set aside, then sauteed mushrooms, peppers and onions. I warmed up some jarred marinara. i toasted the hoagie rolls open face.
Assemble the sandwiches, by daubing marinara on the toasted rolls. Split the sausages in half and place on one half of the roll. Place a pile of onion/pepper mixture on top. Add shredded mozzarella on the meat side and the bare bread side and broil until melted. Slap 'em together and eat up! Maybe cut it in half - it’s kinda messy. 
The New England thing is to brown/cook the sausage whole, combine with sauteed onions and peppers, and serve on a finger roll. Absolute heaven.
One of my favorite meals:
Brown the sausages and top with sauteed onions, green bell peppers, and slices of potato. Served in a sub roll. Sooo good!
Favorite family recipe that people love when they come to visit.
Par-boil the sausages (couple of pounds at least), after sticking them with a fork, to get the fat out.
Then slice them in bite sized slices.
Put them all in an electric skillet and then pour half a bottle of the cheapest Port wine you can find - screw top bottle is perfect (the good stuff just isn’t good for cooking, trust me!).
Simmer covered until the wine has evaporated, and then pour the other half bottle on it and continue to simmer until the sausage is in a thick syrup. This takes some time to simmer out, so go ahead and start simmering a good two hours before the first guests arrive!
Your house will smell fantastic, the sausages taste great and you can keep them warm in the electric skillet for hours and hours, letting people pick with toothpicks or putting some on a plate - convenient during long parties!
If there should be leftovers, they re-heat quickly and easily and taste just as good the next day.
Simple recipe, but people always assume there are bunches of ingredients and that it takes hours of work. Other than waiting for the wine to simmer out, it is the easiest thing to make!
There’s an old Italian grocery store nearby that makes just about the World’s Best Italian sausage. I stock up now and then and keep a bunch in my freezer.
Here’s my favorite thing to do with them: buy Trader Joe’s frozen pizza margheritas. They’re about $3.99 each - a bargain, especially because of their high quality. Squeeze the contents out of a couple of the sausages and saute them while your pizza bakes. When the pizza’s a few minutes from being done, scatter the sausage chunks across the top, together with any other toppings you like. Bake the pizza until wholly done and crisp and serve it up with fresh basil chopped and scattered on top.
I par-boil them then brown in a skillet. Then put them in a bun with onions and peppers like a previous poster said.
If I make sausages—Italian, bratwurst, or otherwise—I first boil them in beer. Especially if you’re dealing with fat, frozen sausages, you can avoid the trichinosis issue completely, then just finish them off on the grill for the black marks. Yeah you could boil them in water but beer adds flavor. Pan frying from start to finish leads to a world of grease and cooked on gunk that I don’t feel like dealing with.
Because some grammar-cop a$$hole is going to do it sooner or later, and it might as well be me:
You browned the casings and left the sausage raw? Eww!
Sorry.
::hits KneadToKnow with a dead, wet, trout::
And yeah, browned sausage casings are Da BoMB 
Haha!
Do the rest of you leave the casings on? Aren’t they tough?
The wonderful snap of a natural casing is part of the pleasure of eating a sausage. I have never even considered the possibility of removing the casing unless I’m using the sausage in a ground “bulk sausage” manner.
I also do not believe in pricking the sausage. I don’t want all the fat seeping out–it helps keep the sausage juicy.
Agreed about the snap. As for the fat seeping out, yeah, it does…but if you’re as impatient as I am, you don’t wait for it to properly cool. Then you bite in and that hot grease is gonna fly somewhere.
Homophobe.
'S the best part. I mean, unless you’re using it like bulk sausage. That’s what makes a really good hot dog, too - you’re cheating yourself if you aren’t getting natural casing hot dogs. Just don’t tell the kids what it is.