Roasted Italian Sausages with Potatoes, Peppers, and Onions

This super simple roasted sausage and potato dish is one my family constantly requests. It’s easy comfort food at it’s finest and combines the classic flavors of sausage and peppers with hearty potatoes for a one pan dish that’s filling and delicious.

Baked sausage dishes are a staple in my home. Not only are they an easy one-dish meals, but they are also clean out the fridge style meals where I can quickly use whatever I have on hand, especially some of those veggies that are on the verge.

With that said, not everyone in my house is always a fan of all the random veggies I tend to throw in this versatile recipe. While I might love roasted sausages with kale or fennel or celery root – sometimes everyone else just wants something classic like today’s recipe using red potatoes, bell peppers, and onions.

To make this recipe your own, you can make all kinds of simple changes to switch up the flavors. Start off by checking out all the varieties of lean chicken or turkey sausages out there – apple and sage, jalapeno, roasted red pepper and feta, pesto – there are so many delicious options.

Then build your spice profile to match the flavors in the sausages. Use paprika and cumin with spicier sausages, try out Cajun seasoning with apple sausages, use fresh rosemary with pesto chicken sausages. Lastly mix up the potatoes using sweet potatoes or even turnips, butternut squash, celery root, or rutabaga for a lower carb option.

How to roast sausages in the oven?

Whether it is a sheet pan sausage dish or this simple roasted sausage and potato dish, it’s really easy to cook sausages in the oven for all kinds of recipes. 

• Whole sausages: When roasting whole sausages, they will take about 30 minutes at 400 degrees. This is true for standard size turkey, chicken, or pork sausages that come in raw form. Make sure to poke some holes in the sausage using a fork or a knife so that they don’t burst. Cook them until the juices run clear and they are cooked through.
• Sliced sausages: Not surprisingly, sliced sausages will cook more quickly than whole sausages.  At 400 degrees, sliced raw sausages can cook in 15-20 minutes.
• Raw vs. Precooked: It’s important to remember that pre-cooked sausages are already cooked. When you roast them in the oven, you are just reheating them to serve and potentially browning them a bit to enhance the flavor. The main thing you want to avoid when using pre-cooked sausage is overcooking it and making it dry. At 400 degrees, you probably only need to cook them for 12-20 minutes, depending on what it is being cooked with.
• What about veggies: When roasting sausages with vegetables, you always want to think about how long the vegetables take to cook. Choose vegetables that cook in the same time as the sausages you are using, or make a plan (see below) to stagger the cooking time.
• Make a plan: If you are making a sheet pan sausage meal, like this roasted sausage and potato dish, you want to create a plan based on how long the sausages and vegetables take to cook. Remember you can always stagger the cooking and start with the item that takes the longest, like the potatoes, and then add other vegetables like zucchini or green beans, that cook more quickly. You can also change up the size of the vegetables (dicing potatoes versus a larger chop) to help the cook more quickly.

What vegetables can I roast with sausage and potatoes?

There are almost endless options when it comes to choosing vegetables to toss in with the roasted sausages and potatoes. I love the classic combination of peppers and onions with sausages, which is why that’s what I included here, but here are some more ideas:

• Add greens with some kale. Add it right from the beginning since kale takes a while to become tender. It will soak up the flavors of the sausage, peppers, and onions.
• If you have some cherry tomatoes, you could toss them in with this dish.
• Toss in some diced zucchini during the last 10 minutes of cooking to add some extra veggies to your dish.
• If you want a lower carb alternative to potatoes, consider swapping in butternut squash, turnips, or celery root.

Recipe Ideas and Tips

• Play around with the seasoning and spices to switch up the flavor. Try Cajun seasoning for something spicy, use Italian seasoning for a more herbal flavor, or lemon pepper for something clean.
• Try different flavors of sausage to change the flavor of the dish. You can get totally different flavors using sweet versus spicy sausage or a flavored sausage like pesto or spinach feta.
• If you are using pre-cooked sausages to make this dish, add them in the last 15 minutes of cooking.
• If you want a heartier dish, you can add a can of chickpeas to the dish or serve it over some grains, pasta, or spaghetti squash.
• This will work with sweet potatoes or any type of white potato. Baby potatoes work great and are quick to prep since they only need to be halved or quartered.

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