Easy Banana Pepper Pasta with Hot Italian Sausage

This Easy Banana Pepper Pasta with Hot Italian Sausage is the perfect way to celebrate the flavors of summer! Ripe tomatoes, garlic-deliciousness with just a touch of heat from Hungarian wax banana peppers and tastes amazing with pasta, low-carb spaghetti squash or even eaten with a spoon, like a soup. At our house we call this Banana Pepper Bolognese; no matter what you call it it’s always delicious!

It was so nice, I made it twice!

Or at least that how this recipe came to be on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon in early September. My Instagram Story peeps know what I’m talking about, right?!?!? I shared this whole journey with them, if you aren’t ready following me, CLICK HERE!

It’s September and we’re cleaning out the summer garden. Which means lots of harvesting! Specifically, today we are working with tomatoes, peppers, beyond mature green beans and a few baby lima beans.

It’s September and we’re cleaning out the summer garden. Which means lots of harvesting! Specifically, today we are working with tomatoes, peppers, beyond mature green beans and a few baby lima beans.

Necessity is the mother of invention.. or something like that. And most often that’s how I cook. And those creations are most often the best.

When we focus on the best, in season produce, paired with locally grown, high quality meats…. what grows together goes together making the best dishes, like this Hot Italian Sausage Bolognese sauce!

Earlier this year, we got 1/2 a woodland raised hog from our BFFs at Footprints Farm in Gibbon Glade, PA. Which, in complete honestly, it’s close to the very very best pork your money can buy, and local folks your silly to not buy all your pork from them!

Funny fact, those same delicious piggies made a break for it and ran through #ourcampserendipity! We spend nearly every summer weekend on their farm camping on the edge Little Sandy Creek and we pass the piggies on our way through the woods.

While I think those little piggies are simply adorable, I also know that they are 100% delicious. I’m thankful for our farmer friends who raise such amazing meats that both nourish our bodies AND make woodlands healthier by turning the dirt with their rooting, disruptive snouts!

So needless to say, we have a bunch of pork in the freezer, including 50# of ground pork that I made into a whole host of homemade deliciousness like my Country Breakfast Sausage, Ramp Sausage and the Homemade Hot Italian Sausage that I’m using in this recipe.

Duh, of course you can use whatever Hot Italian Sausage you have available but I can’t say enough about supporting your local farmers, nourishing your body with high quality meats and making your own hot Italian sausage!

100% worth the effort, I promise!

Yes, Yes, Yes I know…. HAYLEY get back on topic!

Anyways harvesting the season’s best from the garden paired with the hot Italian sausage from our freezer and BOOM! Banana Pepper Pasta Bolognese is served!

I keep forgetting that the garden staples that I’ve grown up with, you might not be familiar with. The Hungarian wax pepper is a medium variety of Capsicum annuum with a wide Scoville Scale range of 1,000 to 15,000 Scoville units according to wikipedia.

I keep reminding myself to clarify. These pretty chartreuse, long, medium spiced-peppers are a staple in our Southwestern Pennsylvania Garden!

I didn’t intend this recipe to be shared here on HISTK but like I mentioned earlier it was so nice, I made it twice as in I made a batch and we loved it so much and had enough ingredients left over, I made it again to write this recipe share with you!

To quote my husband, Ray “this sauce is so good, I just want to eat a whole bowl of it like soup!” If the sauces you are making or using aren’t good enough to eat a whole bowl of, on it’s own, then you need to find a new sauce!

And I believe that VERY strongly. I grew up with a mom and grandmother who always made their own tomato sauces. Tomato sauces worthy of a bowl, spoon and lots of butter bread. No pasta required.

This is a sauce worthy of it’s own meal. Just add a spoon.

This Hot Italian Sausage Banana Pepper Bolognese is the perfect example of a sauce that could just as well be a soup!

I also have a delicious Roasted Tomato Meat Sauce Recipe, that you should check out too!

Perhaps the best part of this Spicy Bolognese Sauce is how easy it is to make, coming together and ready to eat in less than 45 minutes from garden to table.

How to make a Bolognese Sauce with Banana Peppers

Making this Hot Italian Sausage Banana Pepper Bolognese is so easy! This recipe has the perfect balance of spicy punch to saucy delicousness.

While Ray loves extremely healthy HOT foods, I like some extra heat but not as hot as he likes… but we don’t write recipes for us as much as we write them for YOU!

This Banana Pepper and Sausage Bolognese Sauce has mild to medium heat. However, if you want more or less heat, just modify the amount of Hot Hungarian Wax Peppers!

AKA if you want it completely mild use all green peppers. Or add just 1T of Hot Hungarian Wax Peppers at a time until you are happy. You can also use all mild Cubanelle peppers for all the flavors with zero heat!

To make this Bolognese Sauce you don’t need anything special! Here’s what you need:

• Hot Italian Sausage; of course I recommend my homemade recipe!
• Butter, Ghee, Avocado Oil, Lard or Tallow – these are the healthiest cooking fats. Extra virgin olive oil works well too
• Garlic, lots and lots of garlic. More the Better!! I suggest at least 4 garlic cloves
• Peppers, for a mild to medium heat we use 50/50 blend of green peppers and hot banana peppers. Feel free to adjust the ratio to suit your needs.
• Onion, peeled & chopped. I reach for white, yellow or sweet onions, but red onion is good too.
• Tomatoes; peeled & chopped
• Organic Beef Base, chicken base will work in a pinch too. While I love using homemade bone broth in sauces like this, it takes much longer to reduce and concentrate the flavors. To use homemade beef bone broth in place of organic beef base, add 4 cups and cook an additional 60 minutes or as needed to reduce to desired consistency. You can also add collagen peptides to get the similar nutrition from bone broth while using the convenient organic beef base.
• Spices; Dried Oregano & basil. Sea Salt and Black Pepper. All the normal stuff. Nothing fancy. Feel free to substitute fresh herbs if your garden is still producing! You can also add red pepper flakes if you want even more heat!

How to make Banana Pepper Pasta Sauce

Allow me to cut to the chase, you’ll sauté the garlic in ghee. Add the sausage and cook it through. Add the peppers and onions, give them a sauté then add the tomatoes to the sausage mixture and the rest of the seasonings….. simmer for 30+ minutes or until reduced and thickened to your desired saucy consistency!

Easy right???

Oh yeah, give it a taste. Season with S&P as needed. BOOM! A Delicious dish is ready to serve!

How to Serve Bolognese Sauce with Banana Peppers

The most obvious way to enjoy this delicious homemade bolognese sauce is to serve it over pasta, right?? Feel free to use a pasta that you enjoy.

If you are avoiding gluten and/or grains, try making a batch of my Worlds Best Paleo Pasta Dough Recipe. It’s a proven winner! For a nut-free option, My Cassava Flour Pasta Dough is amazing too!

For those of you, who like us, feel their best when eating low-carb, I suggest serving this Bolognese sauce with Spaghetti Squash. The sweetness of the squash with the spicy sauce is wonderful!

You can also cut vegetables into pasta, like zucchini noodles or try Pasta made from Hearts of Palm.

If you are looking to have a Keto Bolognese with a more traditional pasta you should check out Zero Carb Wonder Noodles and No Carb Shirataki Noodles!

How To Freeze Bolognese Sauce with Banana Peppers

Now that you’ve made a batch of this delicious Spicy Bolognese Sauce, I’m sure you are wondering how you can preserve it, right?

Obviously the easies way is to freeze it. (I’ll share canning instructions later!)

Freezing Bolognese sauce is easy peasy!

Because we’ve been down this road countless times over the past 20+ years I’m eager to share with you how we keep ours fresh in the freezer for 1+ years without freezer burning.

The secret is vacuum sealing.

But typically you’d think that you can’t vacuum seal a liquid, right???

Ahhhhhh, nope! I got a hack for you!

Portion your Bolognese sauce, fill your bags and FREZE them. After they are frozen then you seal them up using your vacuum sealer.

This of it like this. You can’t vacuum seal water but you can vacuum seal ice cubes!

No vacuum sealer? oops. Sorry. CLICK here to grab this one that we LOVE LOVE LOVE. We use ours so much for preserving foods and cooking sous vide that our vacuum sealer stays out on our countertop!

Or of course you can choose just use a zip top plastic bag, pushing out all the air you can. But be sure to use your sauce within 3 months. If you are extra crunchy, use THESE SILICONE bags instead of disposable.

How to Can Bolognese Sauce with Banana Peppers

I simply adore having a pantry filled with jars of preserved deliciousness. So, let’s make a double batch of this Spicy Bolognese Sauce and can it!

Since Bolgenese sauces are made with meat, it can be canned HOWEVER it must be pressure canned.

“The reason we’re able to can fruits and some vegetables in nothing more than a boiling water canner is that they are high acid foods. Botulism cannot grow in a high acid environment and so we can safely process these products by boiling recently filled jars for a prescribed amount of time in a boiling water bath to kill off any remaining bacteria and to produce a good seal.

However, meat is a low acid food, which is the ideal environment for botulism. Because of this, low acid foods need to be processed in a pressure canner. Pressure canners raise the temperature of the jar and its contents well above the boiling point, which kills off even botulism and makes the product shelf stable. So please don’t try to process a meat sauce the same way you do a basic marinara.”

https://www.thekitchn.com/is-it-safe-to-can-meat-sauces-95100

To can this hot sausage bolgenese sauce you will need to wash & sterilize your jars. And warm your flat lids, as usual when canning.

Fill jars, pints or quarts, leaving 1 inch head space. (hot sterilized jars and hot sauce) Wipe rims, attached 2 piece lids. Process under 10 pounds of pressure. Pints 60 minutes, Quarts 70 minutes.

I recommend THIS stove top pressure canner or THIS electric pressure cooker that is also certified safe for pressure canning.

How to serve Banana Pepper Pasta

Serve your Hot Sausage Banana Pepper Bolognese Sauce with Pasta, Gluten Free Pasta, Zucchini Noodles, Spaghetti Squash or even in a bowl, with a spoon like soup! Make it a meal serving it with a tossed salad dressed with homemade Italian dressing.

Serve leftovers banana papper pasta sauce as a meatballs bake, toss your favorite meatballs with this sauce in a baking dish. Heat through and enjoy!

But unless you are dairy intolerent, topping it with mozzarella cheese and/or parmesan cheese is defiantly worth the effort. So much YUM.