Sheet Pan Sausage and Sweet Potatoes With Peppers
Smoked sausage coins, cubed sweet potatoes and wide bell pepper strips roasted on one pan in stages, with the pre-cooked sausage added last so it browns instead of shrivelling.
Servings 4 servings
Ingredients
For the Pan
- 14 ounces smoked fully cooked sausage andouille or kielbasa, cut on a steep diagonal into ½-inch coins
- 1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes peeled, cut into ¾-inch cubes
- 2 large bell peppers one red and one orange or yellow, cut into ¾-inch strips
- 1 large yellow onion cut into 1-inch wedges
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and left whole
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
To Finish
- 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
Start the Sweet Potatoes
- Heat the oven to 425F with a rack in the middle. High heat is right here because the sausage is already cooked and browning is the only goal.
- Peel the sweet potatoes, cut them into ¾-inch cubes and pat them dry. Toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, the smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and the black pepper.
- Spread the potatoes across a heavy rimmed sheet pan in a single layer with real space between the cubes, and roast 20 minutes. Giving them the pan to themselves is what browns them instead of steaming them.
Add the Vegetables, Then the Sausage
- Toss the pepper strips, onion wedges and whole garlic cloves with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of salt. Add them to the hot pan, spreading everything back into one layer, and roast 10 minutes more.
- Cut the sausage on a steep diagonal into ½-inch coins. The angle gives each slice a longer face to brown. Lay the coins cut side down in the gaps between the vegetables.
- Roast a final 15 minutes without stirring the sausage. It only needs long enough to brown its cut faces and render its fat, it is already cooked through.
Finish
- Scrape and toss everything on the pan through the orange rendered fat that has collected. Do not pour it off, it is the best flavor on the tray.
- Splash the red wine vinegar over while the pan is still hot, scatter the parsley, taste for salt and serve straight from the pan.
Notes
- The sausage goes on last: pre-cooked smoked sausage only needs 15 to 20 minutes to brown and render. Roasting it the full 45 minutes with everything else is what makes it shrivelled and rubbery.
- Raw Italian sausage is a different timeline: whole links go on at the start with the potatoes, need 30 to 35 minutes to reach 160F, and should rest 5 minutes before slicing. Skip the smoked paprika in that version.
- Wide strips, not dice: ¾-inch pepper strips added partway through still have bite at the table. Diced peppers roasted the whole time collapse.
- Whole garlic cloves: minced garlic burns to bitter specks at 425F.
- Storage: 4 days refrigerated. Reheat in a hot skillet, not the microwave. Freezing is not recommended, the peppers go limp.