Due to a planned late start, we tried for a more of a mid day snack. But these turned out to be big enough to be a small meal. If you don’t have some venison sausage you can use a good pork sausage. But then they’d be pig dangle balls. The other difference here is that I used shell shaped pasta instead of the standard elbow pasta. Also this recipe is for baking them, but you could deep fry them too.
Serves 16 – 22
Ingredients
- 1 lb Venison Sausage
- 6 slices Bacon, fine chopped
- 3/4 cup Panko
- 2 Eggs, beaten
- 2 – 4 Roasted Green Chile Peppers, cleaned and chopped
- 2 cloves Roasted Garlic, chopped
- 2 cups Conchiglie or small Shell Pasta
- 1 cup Gruyere Cheese, shredded
- 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
- 4 Tbsp Butter
- 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
- 4 tsp Black Pepper
- 2 tsp Kosher Salt
Preparation
Roast the chile peppers and garlic on a hot grill until the skin turns black. Remove from heat and cool enough to clean and skin the chile and chop the garlic. Put them both into a food processor or blender and pulse until chopped up into a salsa. Set these aside until later.
Mix 1 egg, 1/4 cup of Panko and 1/2 of the pepper and salt in with the sausage and mix thoroughly. When done, put this mixture in the refrigerator so firm up. In a large pot, cook the pasta shells as directed until al dente, drain and return to the large pot.
While the pasta is cooking, in a skillet cook the bacon until done. Remove and allow to drain on a paper towel. Also prepare the cheese sauce in a medium pot over medium high heat, melt the butter and then mix in the flour slowly. When the mixture starts to brown, reduce the heat to a low to medium and gradually add in all the cheeses and the rest of the salt and pepper. Then add in the salsa and bacon and stir until fully mixed.
Then start working in the pasta and continue mixing over heat until the cheese fully coats all the pasta. Then remove from heat and allow to cool. You might even want to cool this in the refrigerator to make it easier to work with.
Prepare the remaining egg in a small bowl for an egg wash, along with the 1/2 cup of Panko that remains. Take the meat mixture out of the refrigerator and make small 3/4 – 1 inch balls. Smash these flat with about 1/8 inch thickness. Using a small scoop, make a 1/2 diameter ball of the Mac N Cheese. Place these balls in the center of each of the sausage circles. Then roll up the sides so that the meat fully coats the Mac N Cheese balls. Dip each ball in the egg wash and then thoroughly coat with Panko. Place on a sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready for final assembly.
Final Assembly and Cooking
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Since you’ve already done all the hard work, all that’s left to do is lay out for cooking. Foil line a baking pan and put the grill in it. Them evenly spread the balls on the grill. Cook them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are the breading turns golden brown. For an even better toasting spray or brush on a little olive oil before cooking.
