Readers: I am so sorry this is late, but the dinner was a late one too. So I am asking you all to forgive me for not posting this last night liked I had hoped.
We had a side salad with this meal.
Last night dinner was another creation from the Johnsonville Recipe book. I think the only difficult thing was stuffing the sausage mixture in the shells and probably in next times my husband and I make this meal we will get two casserole dishes instead of just one. This meal takes up to two hours. I would like to finally mention it goes great with a side salad and bread-sticks.
Ingredients (makes 4 to 6 servings)
- 12 uncooked cannelloni pasta shells
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 4 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped
- 1 package (19 ounces) Johnsonville Hot, Mild or Sweet Italian Sausage links, casings removed
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 cups milk (do not use nonfat skim milk)
- 12 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon dried Oregano (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400F. Coat 13X9-inch baking pan with olive oil or nonstick cooking spray. Cook pasta shells according to package directions. Drain; set aside.
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms. Cook and stir 5 to 7 minutes or until onion is soft and most liquid from mushrooms has evaporated. Add decased sausage into small crumbles. Remove from heat; set aside.
- Melt butt in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, cook and stir until well incorporated. Add milk slowly, whisking constantly until smooth. Continue whisking until sauce comes to slow boil and starts to thicken. Stir half of sauce into sausage mixture. Spread 3/4 cup remaining sauce in bottom of prepared baking pan.
- Add mozzarella cheese cubes to sausage mixture; whisk in egg yolk until well combined. Gently spoon sausage mixture into cooked pasta shells from both ends to fill; place on sauce in baking pan. Top filled pasta shells evenly with remaining sauce. Sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, and oregano.
- Bake 45 minutes or until heated through and cheese is golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Notes: We did not use mushrooms so I am not sure how it would have tasted with mushrooms. Also we could not find in the stores we went to cannelloni shells so we used what we could find which was manicotti shells. Another suggestion, if you are using an electric stove have it in for 35 to 40 minutes instead of 45.
Happy Cooking
The Unpaved Path 