Slow Cooker Sausage & Peppers

Hearty and loaded with healthy, fresh ingredients like bell peppers, onion, and garlic, this easy Slow Cooker Sausage & Peppers recipe is the answer to your Italian food cravings! Slice the sausages for pasta or leave them whole and place in buns for easy sausage & pepper sub sandwiches!

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This Slow Cooker Sausage & Peppers recipe is great because of the versatility in using it for either pasta or subs! Either way, there’s minimal effort involved!

My family has been crazy busy lately, which means I’m using my slow cooker A LOT!

It really is a time saver when you can just take 10 minutes to throw everything in the slow cooker and dinner is practically made!

I personally love this over farfalle (bowtie) pasta with a generous sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top, but Italian sausage subs or hoagies are just as delicious!

Ingredients needed for this recipe (scroll down to recipe card for complete recipe):

Italian sausages – mild or hot
Green bell pepper
Red bell pepper
Yellow onion
Garlic
Marinara sauce
Fresh basil leaves
Pasta or sub rolls

How to make Slow Cooker Sausage & Peppers

Brown sausages in a skillet, then transfer to a slow cooker.
Add bell peppers, onion, garlic, marinara sauce, and fresh basil to slow cooker. Cook for 3-4 hours on high or 5-6 hours on low.
For pasta, I like to slice the sausages, then top my favorite pasta with the sausage, peppers, onions, and the wonderful marinara sauce. For sandwiches, place whole sausages in buns and top with onions, peppers, and if desired, sliced cheese before going under the broiler for melty cheese.

Both mild and hot Italian sausage links are great in this recipe.

My family loves spicy food, so I use hot Italian sausage and add a little crushed red pepper flakes to the marinara sauce too!

We love the combination of both red and green bell peppers, but feel free to double up on one or the other if you prefer.

Optional, but the flavor of fresh basil added to the dish is fantastic!

How to serve Italian sausage & peppers?

Sausage & peppers can be served in a variety of delicious ways.

You can slice the sausages and put the sauce, sausage, and peppers over your favorite pasta.
Mashed potatoes are a perfect base in place of pasta.
Sub sandwiches or hoagies with the sausages left whole are so good! Simply pile everything into your bun and top with sliced cheese. Put it under the broiler until the cheese is melted.
If you want to take your Sausage & Peppers Sandwich to the next level – make a batch of Chicago-Style Hot Giardiniera a couple days before.

The spicy condiment will add a wonderful zippy flavor and fabulous crunch to the dish!

It’s typically served on Italian Beef sandwiches, but would be amazing with Italian sausage subs!

Tips from readers:

“I make this for my husband’s lunch. Sausages fit nicely into a thermos” – Danielle
“I serve this with rice” – Amanda
“I put mine over mashed potatoes” – April
“I add more veggies. Tomatoes, corn, mushrooms and olives! Delicious! Then I save the extra sauce and make lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs later!” – Wendy

Substitutions

I use pork sausages, but chicken or turkey sausages would be great too.
I used jarred marinara sauce to make this recipe super easy. Feel free to use homemade.
Green, red, and yellow bell peppers are all delicious in this recipe. Use which ones you like best.

Looking for more slow cooker recipes? Here are some favorites:

NOTES:

A 24oz jar of marinara = 3 cups of homemade.
Browning the sausages first is not essential, but the sausages will have a better appearance if browned first. It only takes 5 minutes and I think it’s totally worth it.

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