So, I tried this tonight...
They tuned out pretty well, overall. They had really good flavors, but I do have a couple of notes, though.
1. They turned out a bit dry inside. I think next time I do them, Im going to add mushrooms (tons of moisture) or double up the cheese.
2. He's absolutely right about the uncovered part getting tough. Crunchy might describe it more accurately. Next time I might use two slices of bacon per pasta shell and have a little overhang off the ends.
3. I had a couple where the bacon shrank up and pulled apart exposing the pasta in the middle. It didnt get crunchy, but definitely was not tender. Make sure the bacon overlaps well when wrapping.
4. I chopped a sweet bell pepper up in mine. Tasted fine, but I might roast the pepper first for extra flavor next time.
5. There were 14 shell in the box and I had a lot of the filling mixture letfover. Might need to boxes of shells or half the amount of meat, depending on how many you need to make.
The recipe I used is as follows:
1 lb ground beef
1 lb hot/spicy breakfast sausage
1/4 cup chipped onion
1/4 cup chopped sweet pepper.
8 oz shredded colby jack cheese
My personal spicy pork butt rub
1 box Manicotti shells
Glaze
Sweet Baby Rays original flavor bbq sauce.
Apple juice
Honey
Mix to personal taste and consistancy.
Smoked over pecan pellets at 300 deg for 45-50 min. Glazed and let it tack up for 10-15 more minutes.
Could really taste the sweet pepper and the spice from the sausage and seasoning. The sweet glaze really helped tame the spice.
Oh, yeah...pics. Here ya go 🙂
