Reveal weekend is upon us! Be there or be square.
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Here is mine. I deviated from the recipe by making a bacon lattice because...more bacon!
Bacon lattice
Veggies and fresh mazzo
Roll 'r up. Toothpicks used on each end to keep the bacon from curling while cooking.
On the Traeger Tailgater. This model seems to get really hot down low so the bottom of food gets overcooked. The aluminum foil worked well as a baffle, much more even cooking for this Italian sausage meatloaf thing.
Beautiful!
First slice
Center slice, the ends were a little over done.
On pasta with homemade marinara - not the one mentioned in the recipe, just one I made from homemade tomato sauce and stuff in the fridge.
Thoughts:
You have to really like Italian sausage to enjoy this.
I would like more of the stuffing, maybe rolling the sausage out thinner would allow for more of the stuffing but then you risk the meat tearing apart.
Overall this was good but not my favorite. I found that cutting 3/4" thick slices then cubing the slices and adding to the marinara (simmer for awhile) was my favorite way to eat this.Comment
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Ok, here is mine.
Like I mentioned, I was lucky and found some smoked tomatoes from August. Sauce was delicious. Yeah… ya gotta really like sausage. I did not make my own. I used a blend of sweet Italian and a parsley cheese version from my favorite deli. Definitely stick to your ribs meal. Gemelli pasta as it was the closest to rotini I had. I purposely did not sauce the top so you could see the slice.
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I tried to push myself with this cook and took my first stab at making sausage. I don't own a grinder so the food processor got called in as a substitute. The real reason for trying to make my own sausage is for upping my pizza game, but this was a perfect excuse to give it a go. I used the recipe for Italian sausage from the free side and didn't make any changes to it. Next time, I'll start tweaking it to better match my own taste buds.
All in all I was happy with how it turned out, but I too would have liked more of the filling. This exact recipe is not going to make it into my regular rotation but it does give me some ideas to play with to make it more to my liking. I'm thinking about a combination of beef and lamb to make it more of a gyro-ish kind of thing with some feta cheese, onions, and peppers is going to be my next attempt. There are just so many ways to adapt this to match your own preferences, the mind boggles. Oiling the foil before spreading the meat on it is going to be a game changer too, so a big thanks to SheilaAnn for that tip.
Here she is all spread and ready for a good roll. The sausage, not... Never mind, moving on.
I'm not all arts and crafty like 58limited so mine got the boring bacon wrap. I also trimmed the bacon to length to make it tuck nicely just under the edges of the loaf.
The heat source was the LSG pooper. I didn't get a picture of it, but l left it on the foil to make loading and unloading easier. I also poked some holes on the foil to let the excess grease drip out.
Finally, all plated up with the pasta and the sauce.
I learned that I can make sausage in the food processor as long as I work in batches, and got some good ideas for other meals using this technique, so all in all, it was a success.Last edited by WI Bubba; January 24, 2026, 12:05 PM.Comment
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My daughter, Emily, and I made our version of this recipe last week.
We made our own sausage from our favorite Fennel Italian recipe, but added some unflavored bread crumbs and an egg to improve cohesion. Emily makes several quarts of pasta sauce every year when our tomatoes ripen. Her sauce contains crumbled sausage!!! We used some peppers from the garden, and added some diced green olives because, well just because.
Here are some pics of the finished product:
And, a few along the way:
Cooked in BGE at about 350º to IT 165º
And, leftover sausage over sourdough bread smothered with pasta sauce and leftover diced peppers:
Critique:
We love sausage, so strong sausage flavor is just right.
Like others, would have liked more stuffing
In the future, would use less breadcrumbs to make it easier to roll out thinner
Oh, and of course, more green olives.Comment
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Spinaker Overall answer is yes, we garden through the winter. However, success depends on the crop and luck. We've been picking tomatoes and banana peppers for the last couple of months. For the last couple of years we've had very mild winters, but Sunday morning we're expecting our first hard freeze (<28º for >4hrs in these parts) in several years. It will wipe out what's left of the tomatoes and peppers. Cabbage and many herbs don't much care and I'll cover the pineapple plants and hope.
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Really enjoyed this recipe. My first time making it but will surely make again. I changed things up a bit, hope that is ok.
Did not do the pasta. I sliced additional peppers and onions and cooked them on the griddle then served over the sauce. Also put a little Parmesan cheese on top. Instead of the pasta we had a Cesar salad. Really good, tastes a lot like an Italian sausage sandwich without the bread. Only thing I would do differently is add more cheese, but that is just our taste. Cooked everything outside and it was cold!
This was a lot of fun.
Last edited by DavidNorcross; January 24, 2026, 06:27 PM.Comment
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So, I took pictures. But am mortified. I obviously can not read or follow directions. I had this long sheet of foil, and the direction to have an inch or so of foil on 3 sides. So I assumed the other end of foil would wrap over the top. I did that, put In fridge, cooker on, then realized mistake, cut off excess foil, to cooker. Icy deck, nearly fell, smashed poorly formed roll to my chest, plopped it on grill, reshaped it some, but it was a mess.
End result, mighty tasty, mighty ugly. Needed to make roll much thinner, using more of foil. I added about 8 oz of hamburger to medium and hot ground pork (needed to use the burger).
Good recipe, poor execution. There will be no pics,Comment
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I passed because I am not a big Italian sausage fan. But I can see doing this with some andouille maybe. With Giardiniera.Comment
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My Snausage Bomb exploded!
10 pounds ina five lb bag.Comment
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Well, I failed miserably on this cook, but it was still fun. I over cooked the bacon. That being said, it was still really good under all the burnt bacon!
I used half of the veggies and I skipped the marinara and pasta as they do not really fit into my diet these days. However, I ate the rest of this hog and I really wish I would have watched it more closely. I just let it run a little too long on the smoker at 350 F.
The prep was pretty easy, except I tried to roll the sausage up on the cutting board as I did not have any foil. So instead of running to the store, I decided to let it ride, that was a bad idea. So, I had to audible and use butcher paper. That worked pretty well. I decided to let it sit in the fridge, on a wire rack, for a week and set up. I think that helped a lot with it staying together after my snafu on the cutting board while rolling that bad boy up.
Not sure I would make this again, but it looked cool and it was tasty......I mean it is a sausage roll stuffed with cheese, peppers and onions. I like this one as a fun party cook. People like to see stuff like this, but it is not really all that practical......if that is the right word......but it was tasty.
I give myself a D- and the recipe a C-.
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A big thanks to everyone that played along by doing the cook or following the journey of others. I'm certain that once we get past February the quality of the recipes will improve greatly and hopefully everyone finds something they want to give a go over the course of the year.Comment
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Mr. Panhead John
Manhattan clam chowder, or Bosten Clam Chowder for the win.
Please tell me about Texas Clam Chowder as I am unfamiliar with it.
Thank you, kind sir.Last edited by bbqLuv; January 30, 2026, 01:25 PM.
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TBH, this was fun to just tell people that I messed up. This was not my best effort and the food reflected that. I have been cooking for the better part of 20 years at this point (Kinda scary for me to think about) and I am still learning and screwing stuff up......but hey, that is how we learn, refocus and get better.
Thanks to WI Bubba for heading this up. Looking forward to next month!
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I was always told, "If your not screwing up, then nothing is getting done." -
My dad was a heavy equipment operator and had a lot of downtime in the winter. He became a marvelous baker and a damn good cook. He also had a curiosity streak that led him to conjure up some equally curious concoctions for the dinner table. Most were winners, a couple are now memorialized in the Family Recipe book, and more than a few were....uh....interesting... Some of those were the most fun, though. The more awful they were, the funnier it was.Last edited by CaptainMike; January 30, 2026, 04:51 PM. -
I was elected to have meals ready after school in '74&75. Microwaves were fairly new about that time so I would open multiple tin cans to be put in a large bowl and inserted into the "Micro"with the warm cycle timed at 99:99. Seeya !
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