Jacques Pepin's Sausage, Potatoes, Onions and Mushrooms in Papillote

“I wanted to show Shorey how to make a great one-dish meal for dinner, so we made this one featuring sausage, potatoes, onions and mushrooms in papillote. This is a great dish to make for a party. It can be prepared ahead, even the day before, and placed in the oven 1 hour before serving. Shorey arranged all the different ingredients in the aluminum papillote hours before serving time. When I was a kid, papillote referred to a chocolate candy wrapped in a paper with frilled ends. It was specific for Christmas: les papillote de Noël. It also refers to a paper frill used as a decoration on the ribs of a rack or leg of lamb. More than anything, however, papillote refers to a wrapping of foil or parchment paper in which fish, or sometimes meat, is cooked. The food should not be wrapped tightly in the paper, so some steam develops in the cooking process to keep the food moist while it cooks. This is what we do in this special papillote of sausage, potatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots and herbs. This ultimate one-dish meal can also be made with chicken pieces, ground meatballs and/or different vegetables than are used here. I like to use non-stick aluminum foil for my papillote.”