I would recommend using the Italian sausage links since this recipe has slices of Italian sausage. The Jimmy Dean Italian sausage is better for recipes that called for ground sausage. You can't really slice the big roll of sausage. However, if you only had the Jimmy Dean or a different brand of the big tube of ground Italian sausage, I would recommend cooking it in a pan on the stove and then adding it to the sausage vegetable bake when the veggies are done.