A grilled Italian sausage on a soft bun with sweet onions and peppers, sold from a smoking grill outside Holy Rosary Catholic Church during the Italian.

Italian families that settled around Holy Rosary Catholic Church in the early 1900s brought the sausage sandwich tradition from southern Italy. The Holy Rosary Italian Street Festival has run since 1984 and serves thousands of sausage sandwiches in two evenings each June. Iaria's, the Italian-American room a few blocks away, has anchored the neighborhood since 1933.

Where to eat Italian sausage sandwich in Indianapolis

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More places near Iaria's Italian Restaurant

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Make it at home

Serves 435 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 4 mild Italian sausage links, about 1 1/2 pounds total
  • 2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 large green bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Kosher salt and black pepper
  • 4 long soft sandwich rolls

Method

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a wide cast-iron pan over medium-high.
  2. Brown the sausage links on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Don't fully cook through. Transfer to a plate.
  3. Add remaining olive oil to the same pan. Add onions and bell peppers, season with salt and pepper. Cook 10 minutes, stirring, until soft and just starting to caramelize.
  4. Stir in garlic and oregano. Cook 1 minute.
  5. Return the sausages to the pan, nestle them in the peppers. Cover and cook 5 to 7 minutes, until the sausages reach 160 F at the center.
  6. Split each roll, fill with a sausage and a generous heap of onions and peppers. Serve hot.

Editor tip. Don't pierce the sausage skins. The juices that build up inside finish cooking the inside while the outside browns; piercing dries them out.

Common allergens: Gluten.