Italian Patty Melt

I am not always inspired in advance with an idea for dinner. So, Thursday morning I pulled a pound of Italian sausage out of the freezer, and figured I could come up with something by the time I came home.

As the day progressed, I went through my usual recipe ideas: pasta, but I didn't have any tomato sauce on hand, so that was going to take some time. I could make a cream sauce, but that as going to be rich. Then I remembered a sandwich I used to have at a hole in the wall bar back home. They used to put a breakfast sausage patty in a patty melt, in place of the hamburger. So, why wouldn't Italian sausage work ? We also had some left over marinara in a small dish in the refrigerator that needed to be used up, so this sandwich was born ! I did toast the bread, rather than grill it. It lessens the grease factor from a traditional patty melt, but if you wanted to go the extra mile and grill it in butter, you certainly could!

By the way, there is no picture because we ate them too quickly :)!

Italian Patty Melt
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds Italian sausage, made into 4 patties
4 slices provolone cheese
8 pieces of rye bread
4 tablespoons marinara sauce
4 tablespoons mayonnaise or miracle whip(optional)

Heat a large fry pan with olive oil and saute onions until soft, and set aside. Fry sausage patties until brown, and remove from heat. Toast bread, spread with marinara and mayo, and place one burger on each of 4 slices of bread. Divide onions between the 4 sandwiches, and top with the remaining bread. Serve with chips or fries.