Air-Fryer Sausage, Peppers & Onions Subs

The sausage-and-peppers sub is the Italian-American answer to the cheesesteak: a long roll, something cooked in a pan, melted cheese, nothing on the table that doesn't fit between two halves of bread. In its native habitat — a bocce court fundraiser, a feast-day street fair, a New Jersey diner at 1am — it's made in a giant flat-top skillet that's been crusted with thirty years of sausage drippings. The air fryer is a poor cosmetic approximation but a good functional one: the sausages crisp, the peppers char at the edges, the onions caramelise enough, the rolls toast in their own dedicated minute.

The photo is the assembled version: sub roll split open, sausage links visible through the pile of red-and-green pepper strips, provolone melting down the side, onions tucked into the crevices. You eat this holding it with both hands, leaning forward over a plate that's going to catch the drips. Two per person if it's a real lunch; one is dinner.

A note on the sausage: sweet Italian works, hot Italian works (and is what you actually want if you like it hot), chicken sausage works for the lighter version. Don't pre-cook them on the stove; they finish perfectly in the air fryer in the same window as the vegetables.