Heaven only knows where I first ran into this recipe, but I’m so glad I did. I knew at first glance that we’d love it. And with Italian sausage, mozzarella, marinara, why wouldn’t we?
When I Googled Stuffed Italian Sausages in preparation for writing this post, I learned the recipe had become the darling of the keto/low carb world. I get it. No noodles, no crust, but you still have all the best parts of lasagna or saucy sausage pizza with very low carbs. But honestly, I don’t care about any of that. I love Stuffed Italian Sausages because they’re so easy and so delicious.
You can use hot, sweet, or mild or Italian sausages, as you prefer. I like hot, but for whatever reason my grocery store never has them when I want them. What I usually see is labeled “mild”, and it’s rare I see the sweet ones. The difference between mild and hot Italian sausages is the addition of red pepper flakes to the meat mixture. The difference between mild and sweet Italian sausages is that sweet Italian sausages include basil. If I can’t find the hot ones, I just add red pepper flakes to my marinara. If you want sweet and only see the mild ones, add more basil. Problem solved.
Use whatever marinara you like. I’m still trying to use up last summer’s homemade marinara. When it’s gone I’ll happily use commercially jarred marinara. Lots of LCK readers like Rao’s–and it’s very good–but it’s expensive. Bertolli is about half the price of Rao’s locally, and I think it’s fine. I typically doctor it up a little anyway. I’ve brought home Publix’s store brand marinara with tomato and basil before. After I rinsed the jar with about a quarter cup red wine (I poured that into the sauce of course) and added red pepper flakes, I was happy. In any case, it’s your call.
The keto/low carb world taught me the ease of string cheese in this recipe. String cheese is simply mozzarella in single-serve form. I’ve been buying it since the Princess OG and Princess Persnickety were small, and it’s still always in my cheese drawer. I’ve learned so many new uses for string cheese besides just tossing them in lunch boxes, and Stuffed Italian Sausages is one of them. You can absolutely substitute shredded or a piece of block mozzarella if that’s what you have.
Feel free to serve Stuffed Italian Sausages with buttered pasta and garlic bread. And it’s hard to beat quickly sautéed zucchini as a green vegetable side.
When you open the oven to take the foil off, you won’t believe how good Stuffed Italian Sausages smell! Remember how good real Italian, non-chain, pizza places smelled inside when you were a kid? It’s just exactly like that. Leftovers are insanely good on a nice toasted po’boy roll.
Ciao bella!
Stuffed Italian Sausages
Ingredients
- 1 19 oz. Italian sausages (in casings)
- 5 sticks string cheese
- 1 cup marinara sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°. Get out an oven-proof pan or baking dish, just large enough to hold the sausages in a single layer.
- Make a slit in each sausage long enough to stuff with a piece of string cheese. Note that you're not cutting all the way though the sausage--only cut about halfway through. Stuff each sausage with the cheese.
- Spread ⅓ of the marinara in the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange the sausages on top of the sauce with the cheese facing up. Spoon the rest of the sauce over the sausages. Cover dish with foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes covered. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes or until the sausages are cooked and the cheese is completely melted.
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