This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Johnsonville. The opinions and text are all mine.
Sausage Support Center
Yes – believe it or not – there is a Sausage Support Center in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin that only pops up for two weeks a year! They are like your own personal recipe fairies on the other end of a special hotline that helps families struggling with the back to school time-crunch. The folks answering your call will be real-live Johnsonville employees in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. Because who knows how to cook with Johnsonville better than the people responsible for making it? Call 844-9-Sausage or TEXT 97406 to get a recipe for your family!
Kid-Friendly Recipes
I called into the hotline last week and my call was actually picked up by Ralph Stayer. He is the son of the original founders of Johnsonville and a former CEO. What a surprise! You never know who might answer that phone. Ralph answered the phone with a warm and friendly voice with a midwest accent that only made him sound more endearing.
Call line available: Monday, Sept. 11- Friday, September 15, 2017
So I proceeded to tell Ralph that I really wanted a recipe that used the JOHNSONVILLE® Mild Italian Sausage Links. And sure enough, he gave me a few ideas to make and all were guaranteed to be family-friendly. Ralph also told me (as we continued chatting) that it was his wife who invented the Johnsonville Sizzling Sausage Grill! How neat! And as soon as we got off the phone, I received a text message with links to all the recipes we had just talked about. And don’t worry, if you hate making phone calls, you can always send a text message to: 97406 and still get great recipes! 😉
Cupcakes?
So, as I was sitting on the couch and scrolling through the recipes Ralph had sent me, when my son came in the room and sat next to me to puruse the recipes. As we were looking at a delicious Baked Ziti recipe, my son noticed a recipe for Spaghetti Cupcakes. He immediately said “Oh, we need to make those!” I could see why a kid would love them – they are handheld spaghetti cups! Who wouldn’t love that?! The only thing I did differently was double the recipe so it would make 12 cupcakes instead of 6. I figured I could always refrigerate or freeze any that we didn’t eat.
Ingredients:
2 JOHNSONVILLE® Mild Italian Sausage Links
8 ounces (1/2 box) spaghetti
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 Eggland’s Best eggs, beaten
1 cup spaghetti sauce, plus more for serving
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
Cook the JOHNSONVILLE® Mild Italian Sausage Links as directed on the back of the package.
Note: I cooked all of the sausages from the pack and use the extras for dinner the following night.
Once finished cooking, cut each of the sausage links into about 1-inch thick slices.
Look! You can actually see the bits of fennel in there. So juicy too!
At the same time, cook spaghetti until al dente.
Preheat oven to 350f degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Once spaghetti is cooked, drain well. Then place it into a large bowl. Stir in ricotta and Parmesan cheeses and eggs.
Divided the cheesy-spaghetti into each of the 12 muffin cups. Gently press down the spaghetti to make a small bowl shape.
Top each spaghetti cupcake with about a tablespoon of spaghetti sauce.
Then top with a slice of cooked sausage.
Finally, top each cupcake with mozzarella cheese.
Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
Carefully remove the cupcakes using a small spatula or fork.
Then serve cupcakes with a bit of extra spaghetti sauce for dipping!
These can be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated in the microwave.
Enjoy!
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- 2 JOHNSONVILLE® Mild Italian Sausage Links
- 8 ounces 1/2 box spaghetti
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 2 Eggland's Best eggs beaten
- 1 cup spaghetti sauce plus more for serving
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Cook the JOHNSONVILLE® Mild Italian Sausage Links as directed on the back of the package.
- Once finished cooking, cut each of the sausage links into about 1-inch thick slices.
- At the same time, cook spaghetti until al dente.
- Preheat oven to 350f degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Once spaghetti is cooked, drain well. Then place it into a large bowl.
- Stir in ricotta and Parmesan cheeses and eggs.
- Divided the cheesy-spaghetti into each of the 12 muffin cups. Gently press down the spaghetti to make a small bowl shape.
- Top each spaghetti cupcake with about a tablespoon of spaghetti sauce.
- Then top with a slice of cooked sausage.
- Finally, top each cupcake with mozzarella cheese.
- Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
- Carefully remove the cupcakes using a small spatula or fork.
- Then serve cupcakes with a bit of extra spaghetti sauce for dipping!
These can be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated in the microwave.
Does the spaghetti come out hard and crunchy after baking?
Nope – it stays tender but firm enough to hold together. 🙂
My stomach literally started growling while reading this!!
Very good, have a suggestion, next time I will either use ground sausage or cut the links in smaller pieces. I didn’t have enough Parm Cheese so used some shredded sharp cheddar instead. Made a dozen. Cooked 6 and put the other 6 in frig for another day. Recommend this.