So I halved the recipe shown to get something more like 4-5 servings of soup, and it turned out pretty well. I did cook the potatoes beforehand like she did, and I just took a potato masher and mashed up some of the potatoes as well to thicken it.  Towards the end, I took a teaspoon or so of cornstarch, and mixed it in a small bowl with a ladle of the broth, then mixed that paste back in to thicken slightly. The soup had a great flavor with the mild spices from the sweet Italian sausage, and the potatoes adding a hint of potato chowder. Don’t be afraid of the whole milk and half-and-half– it’s diluted with the chicken broth anyhow, and the result is nowhere near as thick and heavy as a restaurant chowder, but is still very satisfying. I expect I’ll be making this a lot in the coming months.

You’ll need:

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage **See below for notes on sausage
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced ** I used one red, one yellow for variety and colorfulness
• 2 yellow onions, sliced ** Only used half of one large yellow onion and it was plenty
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup Marsala wine
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

Below is my own rendition of the instructions!

A note on sausages: I imagine you can use most kinds of sausages in this recipe, though I would advise trying turkey or chicken because I think the lighter taste helps really balance out all the other flavors in the dish. You can use raw or precooked – I used the aidells brand of precooked chicken sausages, sun-dried tomato flavor.  Ryan was raving about the aidells sausages, and I have to agree that they are very tasty.  If you use precooked sausages, I also recommend browning them in the pan for the first step anyway so you can use a bit of the grease that runs out of them to sautee the peppers and onions in.

First, heat some oil in a big skillet and cook the sausages over medium heat until browned. Drain out most of the grease, but leave in a bit for the veggies!

Throw in the chopped peppers and onions! I like to pump up the heat to medium-high initially to get a good saute going.  Salt and pepper them to taste, though don’t overdo it because there are many other savory and sweet flavors coming in later.

One the onions are looking translucent and a bit browned, throw in the chopped garlic, dried oregano, and basil. Revel in the sudden complexity of the smell! At this point I turned the heat back down to medium.

After a couple minutes, add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes (after draining them) and the marsala. Stir well, then simmer.

It might look something like this at this point:

Cut the sausages up – Giada recommends 1-inch cubes but I like to go smaller because my jaw is gimpy and I think it works better to have smaller bits when you put it in sandwich form. Throw the sausage into the pan, stir it around a bit, and let it simmer until the sauce is thickened (it says 20 minutes on the recipe but mine took about half that long).  As long as the marsala is cooked off and the sauce looks decently thick you’re good.

Now you have a couple choices when serving this dish  – we took a fresh white baguette and hollowed out the innards a little and just scooped the mixture into them to make subs. It was amazing.  You can also serve bread on the side or eat it straight – I would however definitely go with bread in some form because the taste is pretty intense.