I started by melting a little butter, about 1T, over medium heat in a dutch oven. Then, I tossed in a couple cups of grapes, let them heat for a few minutes and making sure they coated with butter. I only had green grapes on hand, but red would work as well. In fact, next time I make this I plan on using both. Oh yeah, while all this is happening, the oven is preheating to 400 degrees.
After a couple of minutes, I added three hot italian sausages to the grapes. I didn't leave them on the stove for very long, maybe 5-7 minutes.
** I should clarify: Be sure to position the sausage on top of the grapes. Otherwise, your sausages will cook too quickly. Plus, you want them to help weigh down those grapes and squeeze the juices out!
When the oven is preheated, I added some balsamic, covered the pot and stuck them in for about 15-20 minutes. Then this happened, and I was very happy:
Everything should be nicely browned when it's finished. Once I was satisfied with the color, I transferred the sausage and grapes to a serving dish, and returned the pot to the stove. Over med-high heat, I added a high quality balsamic vinegar to the crusty bits in the pot, stirring them up and scraping the bottom until everything reduced and turned thick and syrup-y.
Finally, I poured my beautiful balsamic reduction over my beautiful sausage. Beautiful!
I served this with a super simple bowl of mashed red potatoes and some asparagus. Please, do yourself a favor and make this. It's so, so easy to make. But it looks so impressive and fancy. I would definitely make this for a special occasion and it would knock everyone's socks off. Then they would lift me over their heads and sing "For she's a jolly good fellow!" and I'd be the hero of the day. All because I cooked sausage with grapes.
Sausage with grapes, y'all. Do it.
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Doin it!!
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