Assurance

About once a week, I pick up Griggstown chicken sausages at our farmer's market along with whatever vegetables are seeming new. Sold frozen raw,  it's a delicious product, infused with parsley, white wine and garlic, or sundried tomato and basil, and it serves as assurance that if I have no idea what to make one day coming up, it's there and ready to go without the demands for breadcrumbs or other accessories like meatballs need. When I get home from the market, I set it in the fridge to defrost: tomorrow will require a dash less thought. And then, that's done. While I believe the popular thing to do with these sausages is to grill them, a large percentage of us don't have that outdoor access even during these months, and I've completely fallen for this oven application. Sometimes, I don't even envy grillers...sometimes. This is one of those times.

I snip the casings open, discard them, then pinch and dollop the raw sausage onto a lightly greased sheet pan. Vegetables are then trimmed to even size and I stick to a formula of something that will cook in 20-25 minutes (red peppers, broccoli, asparagus, (when it was abundant), and currently, zucchini), an aromatic (leek rounds or scallions cut in half--shown above), toss it all in olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme or oregano and spread it out for browning amongst the sausage. Everything gets roasted in a hot oven, shaken halfway through and when it leaves the oven, you'll wonder if you should even bother transferring it to a serving dish. A lemon wedge, smatter of herbs and a serving spoon is all you need. Well, salad and bread is nice, too.

Chicken Sausage and Vegetable Sheet Pan Supper

12 oz seasoned raw chicken sausage in casings (like Griggstown)
1 medium zucchini (or pepper or broccoli head), sliced into coins
2 small leeks, white part sliced into coins, or 6 scallions, halved and trimmed of tops and bottoms
sea salt and pepper
1 tsp white wine
olive oil
fresh thyme or oregano

Heat the oven to 425 F. Use your finger to lightly grease a sheet pan with about 1/2 tsp oil. Toss vegetables in a glug oil and salt/pepper. Sprinkle with oregano or thyme. Transfer to pan and spread out. Open the sausage casings and use your fingers to pinch off pieces about 1.5 inches--I usually get about 5 pinches per sausage. Divide among the sheet pan. Drizzle sausage with a tad more oil and pinch of salt and oregano, pour the 1 tsp wine around the vegetables, and transfer to oven. Roast 20 minutes, then remove and shake pan, tossing. Return to oven for 2-4 minutes more, until sausage is firm to touch, cooked through but still tender (cut into one to see no pink or take temp) optionally broiling for the last minute if you want more char--but watch it! I only do this sometimes if I've crowded the pan. If you've spread everything out you should be nicely browned. Let cool a few minutes, then transfer to serving dish. Serve with lemon to squeeze, and sprinkle herbs on top.