Memorial Day sausage sandwich extravaganza: a different kind of pigs in a blanket!

There’s no time like the time you spend with your loved ones 🙂 This weekend my husband is off work, which means we will truly be celebrating Memorial Day together as a family. We went out to eat today, while tomorrow we’ll stay home and dear husband will do some grilling – and when we grill, we don’t hold back! We will for sure make the decadent sandwich below using fresh sausages we got on sale from the local grocery store. I will use a batch of Italian sausages for this purpose, but you can use brats as well (as we did in the past) with similarly spectacular results.

In creating this dish I was inspired by pigs in a blanket, the popular appetizer which involves hot dogs or small sausages wrapped in dough and baked until piping hot. Eating them straight out of the oven, sizzling with luscious juices and covered in buttery pastry, is definitely one of my greatest joys. This dish does resemble pigs in a blanket, but with a twist: the dough is replaced by lots and lots of bacon and pepper jack cheese. The more proteins, the merrier!

This dish is also yet another opportunity to showcase the versatility of roast pepper dip, one of our household’s favorite condiments ever. To make this dip, mix roasted red peppers and sour cream in a bowl until well combined. Add salt and red pepper flakes (the latter if desired), taste, and set aside. Store the leftover dip in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

You can use freshly roasted peppers or you can buy them in a jar, conveniently roasted already. If you opt for jarred peppers it’s always good to drain the peppers well in advance. I usually take them out of the jar and leave them in a colander to drain for a good few hours before use.

Grill the sausages until almost cooked through, for about 12 minutes.

Take the sausages out of the grill and let them cool.

Wrap the sausages in bacon and place them in the preheated oven to cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the bacon starts getting crispy.

Wondering how many slices of bacon are enough for one sausage? That, of course, depends on the size of the sausage in question. I usually use 2-2.5 slices of bacon to cover one sausage completely, as you can see in the picture below.

When the bacon is cooked take the sausages out of the oven…

…and add 2 slices of Pepper Jack cheese on top of each sausage, making sure they are covered in cheese completely.

Put the sausages back in the oven to cook for another 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted, then take them out of the oven.

This is how the sausages look like at this stage in the process, completely covered in a delicious layer of dairy lava. It looks like the melted cheese is really keeping them comfy 🙂

Keep the sausages warm in a covered pan.

Cover the inside of a bread roll with a layer of roast red pepper dip. I used French roll in this particular instance, but you can use other kinds of rolls as well, which you can toast in advance, as per your preferences. Whatever route you take, make sure the bread is sturdy and can hold a lot of ingredients/layers. Believe me when I say the choice of bread is key: I’ve had my share of crumbling sausage sandwiches 🙁

Add the following on the half roll which is going to make up the bottom of the sandwich: lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, sliced yellow bell pepper.

Place the warm sausage on top of the veggies. Top up with mustard (optional).

Add the last ingredient: the tomato slices. We’re almost done, yay!

Finish off with the other half bread roll. Press gently to allow the sandwich elements to blend in together.

Serve the sandwich warm, with extra roast red pepper dip on the side. As you eat, dip the sandwich into the roast pepper concoction, savor every bite of sizzling protein decadence, and feel your mouth explode with flavor 🙂

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do. Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day, everyone!

Share this post: on Twitter on Facebook on LinkedIn