Delicious baked Italian sausage roasted with grapes traditionally from the fall grape harvest, onions, celery and aromatic thyme, is so satisfying that it needs no sides. Baked in one pan, it’s perfect for easy weeknight meals and dinner parties alike.
Italian sausage and grapes are absolutely delicious roasted together! Originally a dish of the fall grape harvest, this simple and tasty dish is a longtime favorite at our fall dinner table. Elegant while rustic and hearty, this is one of those dishes that is perfect for both casual and fancy dinners, and easy to make for one person or a group. You will love how easy and quick this one-pan meal is to throw together.
What Makes this Baked Italian Sausage Recipe Special
This is considered an agro-dolce dish in Italian. The savory depth of flavor from roasted Italian sausage, combined with a hint of sweetness from the onions and sweet acidity from the grapes, makes a wonderful combination. Baked celery adds the perfect subtle crunch, and along with fresh aromatic herbs, rounds out the flavors beautifully.
Make it Once, Enjoy it Twice
We really love the motto of making it once, enjoying it twice. So go ahead and add a little extra of all the ingredients, and warm up the excellent leftovers for another delicious meal!
Ingredients
Italian sausage (not spicy), grapes, celery, onions (ideally red), bay leaves, thyme, olive oil, salt and pepper
Notes on Ingredients
- Italian Sausage (Salsiccia) – A milder spiced sausage works best for this dish, so as not to compete with the herbaceous flavors of the fresh thyme and bay leaves, or the gracious touch of sweetness from the grapes.
- Grapes (Uve) – Wine grapes are optional, of course. See my note below about seedless grapes!
- Color – You can use red grapes, white grapes, or mixed. The firmer the better. For this reason, I find the oblong grapes work well. However, if big round juicy globe grapes are all you can find, just be sure to use fewer grapes, and leave more of them whole, so as not to create a grape broth!
- Crushed or Halved – Whether you crush, or halve some of the grapes is up to you. If the grapes are big and juicy, I leave them whole. Or I only crush a few, to provide a little juice. If they are on the firmer side, I crush around one third of the grapes to ensure enough juices in the pan.
- The best way to crush grapes – I find the best way to crush grapes is on a cutting board with the back of a wooden spoon. To protect from grape splatters, angle the spoon away from you, and with the palm of your hand on top of the spoon, gently press down on each grape in a front to back motion. You crushed it!
- Seedless Grapes (or seeded by hand) are best! – Well, you be the judge! While grapes from the wine harvest, which naturally have small seeds, are traditionally used in Italy, I soon found out while living in Tuscany how hard and crunchy (and a bit bitter) those seeds can be when you bite into them. Eventually though, I kind of got used to them, but it took a while.
- For Beauty’s Sake – I like to keep some of the grapes attached to their stems in the pan, for visual appeal.
- Bay Leaves (Alloro) – Including a bay leaf per person looks nice on the plate. By the way: if you can’t find a good source for bay leaves to use in your cooking, have you ever considered buying a culinary bay laurel tree (Laurus nobilis) to keep in a vase at home? (They are beautiful and oh so convenient!)
- Thyme (Timo) – Thyme is such a lovely herb. Approximate here. Put more, if you like. Leave some on the stem to garnish each plate, if you have extra.
- Onions (Cipolle) – I like to use red onions, but any onion will do. Shallots, halved lengthwise, look beautiful too. Just be sure to allow for some in every bite.
- Celery (Sedano) – Grape harvest time is also a great time for tasty celery. Include the fanned out ends of the celery stalk for extra visual appeal. I tend to exaggerate with the quantity of celery. It seems to never be too much!
Browse More Mediterranean Recipes
Traditions: A dish well known in years past on Italian farm tables and vineyards during harvest time, Salsiccia coll’ Uva is first mentioned in the Art of Eating Well, by Pellegrino Artusi in 1891. Believed to be from the Italian region of Umbria, it is also found in other parts of central Italy. It would not have been surprising to find in other areas as well, where the traditions of growing grapes for wine and raising pigs span thousands of years.
More Fall Recipes
- Rocket (Arugula) Salad with Crispy Potatoes, Roasted Almonds and Dijon Dressing
- Lasagna Bolognese
- Tagliatelle alla Bolognese
- French Pear Tart with Almond Cream (Tarte Bourdaloue)
- Tiramisù: The Ultimate Recipe
A Quick Rundown
This one-pan dish comes together quickly and easily. Italian sausage is cooked in the oven, and basically involves adding some grapes — some whole, some crushed or halved, chopping some celery into large bite-sized pieces, slicing some onions, and throwing them together into a pan along with herbs and olive oil, and then into the oven to roast. Baking Italian sausage in the oven means you can go do other things while the ingredients cook into a delicious meal — another reason it’s a favorite.
Subscribe
Be the first to know about new recipes.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 8-10 celery stocks, cut diagonally into bite-size pieces, including the fanned out ends, for visual effect
- 1 medium red onion (or any onion will be delicious), halved and thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1.5 lb seedless grapes, red, white or mixed, (firm oval grapes are ideal), plus more raw grapes to garnish
- 8 fresh Italian pork sausages (not spicy)
- 4 bay leaves (one per person)
- 1 bundle thyme (20-40 stems), leaves stripped from stems, plus a few whole stems to garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C)
- Toss the celery and onion in a rectangle roasting pan with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in the oven to get about a 10 minute head start on cooking while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Crush some grapes with the back of a wooden spoon (see notes) to help them release their juices while cooking, or cut in half. Add the grapes to the roasting pan, including some on the stems, for visual effect.
- Pierce the sausages a few times with a toothpick to allow steam to escape, then lay them on the grapes and nestle the bay leaves closely around the sausages.
- Sprinkle with thyme, including a few whole stems, and a dash of salt and pepper. Return the pan to the oven.
- Roast uncovered for 25 minutes, then turn the sausages to brown on the other side for another 25 minutes. (The minimum cooked temperature of the sausage should be 160°F/71.1°C) If sausages are not golden to your liking, turn the oven on broil for a few minutes until they achieve a deep golden color. (Carefully watch them the whole time you have the oven on broil—they can go from beautiful to burnt fast.)
- To serve, garnish each plate with a bay leaf, stems of thyme, and a stem of grapes from the roasting pan.
Nutrition Info: Click to Expand
Recommended Wine
Sagrantino di Montefalco – Deep inky red, austere, bold tannins, leathery, concentrated dark berries with a hint of espresso… Appropriately, an Umbrian wine of high regard. Where to find it? Winesearcher is a great website to find which stores in your area (right down to the zip code) carry the particular wine you’re looking for, along with comparative prices. Wine.com is another convenient source that I’ve used many times for ordering wine.
by
