Sausage Fajitas

What do you get when you cross a typical Italian ingredient with some Mexican ingredients? A Sausage Fajita!

I had so much fun conceptualizing this recipe. We love making fajitas and have them every once in a while. Fajitas are easy to make in a relatively short amount of time and everybody loves them! Meat, peppers, onions, spices and cheese ~ what's not to love?
We still have peppers from our garden and the other day I picked up some Italian sausage and shredded cheeses at the store. Among ingredients I already had on hand were some tortillas for making fajitas and then the idea started to come together. I thought instead of sausage, peppers and onions I would make something a little different and fuse Italian and Mexican. Kind of like I did when I made my Meatball Quesadillas.

I was baffled a bit on which way to go with spices; should I use Italian spices or Mexican spices? Garlic and Oregano work in both cuisines, so that would definitely be part of the flavoring. Since I am using a sweet Italian Sausage, a little cayenne pepper for heat and going out on the limb adding a wee bit of cumin for an earthy tone to the dish.

• 4-5 Italian Sausage Links
• 4-5 flour tortillas (fajita size)
• 1 bag shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mexican Blend
• 2 large peppers (green and or red)
• 1 large onion
• 1 tsp. fresh minced garlic
• 1 tsp. granulated garlic
• 1 1/2 tsp. oregano
• dash of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

1. If you have time, put the sausage in the freezer for about 30-45 minutes. When it's a little hard, it's easier to slice into bite size pieces. So when you're ready slice the sausage into bite sized pieces.
2. Take the seeds and white veins out of the peppers and cut them into strips.
3. Peel your onion and cut it in half then cut half moon slices.
4. Mince your fresh garlic and have the spices ready.
5. Preheat the oven to 350°.
6. In a large skillet brown the sausage pieces over medium heat and cook until they are almost fully cooked. They'll spend  a couple of minutes in the oven and finish cooking. When done remove them to a bowl.
7. In the same skillet you browned the sausages, add one tablespoon of olive oil unless there's enough fat from the sausages. Let the oil heat up and add in the slices of pepper and onions. Saute those for a few minutes and add in the minced garlic. Stir and saute for another 30 seconds. 
8. To that add all of the spices and give a good mix. Transfer the sausage back in and mix well.
9. Lay the fajita tortillas on a baking sheet (or two of them). Add the sausage and pepper and onion mixture to each tortilla.
10. Top with shredded cheese.
11. Bake in a 350° oven until the tortillas are a little crispy and the cheese has melted. About 5-6 minutes.

I was a little nervous about this recipe until I made one for photographing and had my husband taste it along with me. We both thought it was really good and it's my hope that you will also. The green pepper adds a spicy little bite and it's balanced out with the sweet red pepper. The earthy cumin and oregano and garlic worked really well with the sausage and the veggies. Overall it's got pizzazz!

This batch makes 4-5 good sized portions. The cost for four people, approximately $3.30 each.

This took me about 40 minutes from start to a finished fajita which makes it ideal for a dinner during the week when you have so little time to cook.