Doesn’t fried food on a stick just take you right back to your childhood and warm summer days at the state fair? You may have tried a lot of different carnival food over the years, but we doubt you’ve ever had something this good before! Deep-fried jumbo pasta shells stuffed with hearty meatballs or creamy cheese balls – life just doesn’t get better than this.
Fried Stuffed Pasta Pops
Deep-fried jumbo pasta shells stuffed with hearty meatballs or creamy cheese balls – life just doesn't get better than this.
Equipment
- Lollipop sticks
- Oil for frying
Ingredients
- 4.5 oz jumbo pasta shells
- 6 oz ground beef
- 1 egg
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp parsley
- 2 tbsp parmesan
- pepper to taste
- salt to taste
- 2 mozzarella pearls
- 4.5 oz feta cheese
- 1 oz olives, sliced
- 1 oz sun-dried tomatoes
- 1.5 tbsp cream cheese
- 0.5 tsp rosemary
- 2 oz bread crumbs
- 2 oz flour
- 3 eggs
- 0.5 day-old bread roll soaked in water
- 0.5 day-old bread roll grated
Instructions
- Cook the pasta shells about 3 minutes less than the instructions call for and set aside. Take a day-old bread roll and cut it in half, width-wise. Soak one half in a bowl of water, and grate the other half over a separate bowl which you will set aside for later.
- Squeeze the water out of the wet bread roll well and add it to the ground beef. Add the egg, chopped garlic, parsley, and parmesan. Season everything with salt and pepper and mix the meat mixture together with your hands.
- For the second filling, crumble the feta cheese into a bowl and add the finely chopped olives, sun-dried tomatoes, cream cheese, and chopped rosemary. Season the mixture with a little pepper and mix everything well.
- Cut the two mozzarella pearls in half and stick one in the middle of each meatball you will form with your hands. Place each meatball inside two pasta shells.
- Form small cheese balls from the cheese filling and place each cheese ball inside two pasta shells.
- Add the crumbs from the day-old bread roll that you set aside in Step #1 to the bread crumbs. Dredge the stuffed pasta shells in flour, egg, and bread crumbs, stick lollipop or cake pop sticks in the breaded pasta bites, and fry in hot oil.
VIDEO
Notes
Try experimenting with other fillings to spice things up a bit.
What a cool treat, and it brings a whole new meaning to the concept of finger food. Try experimenting with other fillings to spice things up a bit.
You can find the recipe for the Lasagna On A Stick featured in the bonus video here.