Superbowl Sunday: Pesto Piggy Wraps

Game days are the perfect excuse to exersize your smoker in the winter. All that cheering and beer lifting requires some protein with those chips and dips. Here is a smoked appetizer I  like to make, named by my son as Piggy Wraps. It takes three of my favorite flavors: sausage, pesto and bacon, all wrapped together.

The recipe follows. While you are smoking these tasty little piggies, throw on two onions, peeled and halved, in the smoker, to make the next recipe on my list: Smokey Onion Dip.

Pesto Piggy Wraps
makes approx. 36 appetizers

Ingredients

2 lbs pork sausage, uncased
5 T. pesto
1 egg
1/3 cup fine bread crumbs or pancake mix like Bisquick
2 packages of bacon, sliced down the middle.

1) Make a low fire in a charcoal, wood or pellet smoker, or preheat an electric smoker. Target temperature - 225-250 degrees.

2) Mix the sausage, pesto, egg and breadcrumbs/pancake mix together. Roll into 1 oz balls and wrap each one with a half a slice of bacon. Place on an old pan that can get "ruined" for the smoker, or use disposable foil pans.

3) Put wood on your heat source and Get Your Smoke On.

4) Place pans on smoker racks, indirectly from the heat source and smoke for 45 minutes.

Next up: Smoky Onion Dip