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Ooey gooey melty Pesto Cheese Bombs with marinara sauce are super easy to make and will please any crowd. Make this appetizer for your next game day party!

pesto cheese bombs with cheese pull on platter with marinara sauce
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I love me some bread and melted cheese. In fact, I think cheesy bread deserves its own food group, much like bacon does. Refrigerated biscuit dough is one of those staples everyone should have in their refrigerator. If not to use it for its intended use, biscuits that is, that dough should always be available for that emergency batch of Monkey Bread with biscuits that everyone loves to wake up to.

premade biscuit dough from a canister with string cheese chunks

These cheese bombs are a thing of beauty. First of all, it doesn’t get much easier than cutting up some string cheese, and if you’re a mom you most certainly already have cheese sticks in your refrigerator. To make the pull apart, all you need to do is wrap some dough around the cheese. BOOM. Done. But wait. You know they could be oh so much better with a little something extra.

cheese filled biscuit dough balls rolled in pesto sauce

Enter the pesto. Don’t fret – you can totally buy a tub of store bought pesto. Not a problem. Me? I just happen to have some of my homemade macadamia gouda pesto (aka highly addictive green crack) in the refrigerator that was just begging to be used in an application like this.

Ooey gooey melty Pesto Cheese Bombs with marinara sauce are super easy to make and will please any crowd. Make this appetizer for your next game day party!
ramekin in spring form pan

I decided to use the springform pan with a dish in the middle perfectly sized for some warm marinara. I greased the sides so the dough wouldn’t stick and then lined the bottom with parchment. Be sure to place a piece of foil on the rack below because this will ooze in the naughtiest of ways during the cooking process.

uncooked pesto cheese bombs in round pan with ramekin in middle

Here’s a little before and after action to show you how much they expand during the cooking process.

top view of pesto cheese bombs with marinara

The result? A super easy to make gooey appetizer that everyone will love. Not sure how long to cook it?  The sign they they are perfectly done is when the cheese starts to ooze out. Oh yeah.

Pretty good use of the left over pesto, wouldn’t you say?  Enjoy!!!

dipping pesto cheese bomb in marinara

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Pesto Cheese Bombs

Prep15 minutes
Cook35 minutes
Total50 minutes
Servings 16 cheese bombs
Ooey gooey melty Pesto Cheese Bombs with marinara sauce are super easy to make and will please any crowd. Make this appetizer for your next game day party!

Video

Equipment

Ingredients 

  • 16 ounces biscuit dough (the kind from the tube)
  • 4 mozzarella string cheese sticks
  • 1/2 cup pesto
  • butter for greasing
  • 1 cup marinara sauce warmed
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Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a ramekin or ceramic bowl in the center of a springform pan and grease the inside edges of the pan as well as the outside of the bowl to prevent sticking.
  • Split each biscuit into two by dividing the layers, totaling 16 rounds of dough. Cut each of the cheese sticks into quarters. Wrap each chunk of cheese in the biscuit dough and seal edges to create a ball.
  • Add pesto to a small bowl and roll each ball of dough in the pesto to coat. Add to the pan in a ring shape and cover with any remaining pesto. Bake with a layer of foil under the pan to catch any grease that might leak out for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and some melted cheese is visible.
  • Add warmed marinara to the center dish for dipping. Serve hot.

Nutrition

Calories: 39kcal, Carbohydrates: 2g, Fat: 3g, Sodium: 168mg, Potassium: 54mg, Vitamin A: 225IU, Vitamin C: 1.1mg, Calcium: 15mg, Iron: 0.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Did you make this? Leave me a comment below

Hi! I’m Krissy.

I love to create the BEST versions of your favorite recipes. If you love to cook, love to eat, or just have a deep appreciation for good food, you're in the right place! Stick around... I have hundreds of recipes for you to make.

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43 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    I made this recipe as an appetizer for a dinner party. Cooked them for 30 min at 375, as per instructions on the biscuit tube. They were fantastic! Thanks!

    1. Gasp! You don’t like pesto? Just messing with you. Honestly, a nice olive oil with some minced garlic would work great!

    1. I think as long as you let them cool first and then wrap them super tight and squeeze out all the air, they’d be fine.

    1. Hi Maureen. Absolutely! Whole milk mozzarella is all you need. I prefer the firmer block as opposed to the soft one floating in liquid. -Krissy

  2. 5 stars
    Just made this appetizer for a wine party I went to this past weekend. It was a good choice everyone loved them. It was also easy & fun to make with my teenager, I’ll definitely make them again!

    1. Yep! You’ll just need to adjust the time so they all get cooked through. Maybe lower temp to prevent burning but longer cook time? Or cover to keep from burning?

  3. I need an appetizer for a church Christmas party and i want to bake this into the shape of a Christmas tree and use pepperoni like ornaments.