smoky Italian sushi

Been on a sushi kick lately but wanted some different ingredients, so here it is, hot-smoked hot Italian sausage, egg plant, fresh mozzarella & fresh basil all rolled in cooked orzo. Following the barleysagna & barleyzaa experiments, figured the starch from the riso would be sufficient to hold it together once cooled which did work for the cold ‘sushi’ version of this cook, not so much for the hot version served with tomato sauce. I actually thought I invented this until I googled it, found out it’s been done, slightly differently but done nonetheless…

The ingredients:



Nice hot fire with a fist full of cherry chips:



Some of the internal ingredients:







The ‘rice’



Between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to firm up:



Add some weight to be sure:



Basil down:



Smoked sausage:



Mozzarella:



All together:



Rolls up pretty well:



Not nearly as sticky as sushi rice, but enough to hold itself together:



All wrapped up & into the fridge to set up:



Few hours later slice them up & serve, excellent cold:





Had to have some hot too, so a simple fast sauce in the back & a cast iron plate up front with olive oil heating up:





On the plate following a catastrophic loss of structural integrity:





No matter, taste was out of this world, happy day