Gluten Free Sausage and Peppers Recipe
Updated Jun 19, 2026, Published Jul 08, 2010
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I received an email from a reader a while ago that I found a little disturbing. The reader said she was married to a great guy from an Italian family and every time she went to dinner at the mother in law’s house (which was every week!) the mother in law made a big deal out of her not eating gluten. She was constantly trying to get her to “just eat a little, it won’t kill you” and taking offense when she politely declined. There was also very little offered at these dinners that was gluten-free.
My advice? I told her to take the gun, leave the cannoli.
Ok, not really.
Good manners aside, it IS dangerous to “just eat a little” gluten if the body can’t tolerate it. If you don’t believe me, read here to see what the Gluten Free & More medical consultant, Dr. Vikki Petersen, has to say about this.
My real advice was to educate the mother in law and to bring some safe, gluten-free Italian food she can eat and share.
One of my favorite dishes to prepare for a crowd is gluten free sausage and peppers. Easy, flavorful and comforting, especially when served in a big bowl of creamy polenta, sausage and peppers are sure to win over even the most hardened of mother in laws. And if not, then I default to my earlier advice about the gun.
I have scaled this recipe down to a normal family sized dinner but if you need to feed a crowd or impress your Italian mother in law, the recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, etc. BTW if you have a Costco membership they sell big quantities of gluten-free Italian sausage that are both delicious and very reasonably priced if you ever decide you need to feed the neighborhood! (Note that Costco sold these at the time of this original post but always be sure to check labels, as they could potentially change their recipe over the years.)
Gluten Free Sausage and Peppers Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 gluten-free Italian sausage links, – hot, sweet or a combination of both
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow or white onion, – cut in half and then thinly sliced
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 3 bell peppers – red, – yellow green or a combination, seeded and cut into strips
- 2 cloves garlic, – minced or grated with a microplane grater
- 1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning
- ½ cup gluten-free chicken broth, – tomato sauce or dry white wine
- Handful Italian parsley, – chopped, for garnish
- Parmesan Cheese, – grated (optional, omit for dairy free)
Instructions
- Remove the casings from the Italian sausages and cut or tear into 1 inch pieces.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Brown the sausage pieces until browned on all sides, stirring to ensure proper browning. This may take 5 or 6 minutes. Remove the sausage pieces and set aside.
- Add the onions to the pan, stirring to coat with the oil. Season with a few pinches of salt and a little pepper. Cook until the onions have started caramelizing and softening, about 15 minutes. Add the sliced peppers, garlic and Italian seasoning and cook until the peppers soften, about 5 minutes or so. Return the peppers to the pan, add the chicken broth, tomato sauce or wine and cook until the peppers have heated through and the liquid has reduced, about 5 minutes or more. Adjust seasoning with some more salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve over gluten-free pasta , rice, or polenta and top with chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese, if desired. These also make delicious, hearty sandwiches stuffed into toasted gluten free sandwich rolls.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Heads up, Costco Italian sausages are NOT gluten-free. Not as of today anyway.
Thanks Chaba! At the time of the post they were, at least at my local Costco, but they could have changed that since then. I’ve updated the post to include a little disclaimer to check labels.