I had never in my life ordered the meatball sub from Subway. It always seemed so weird to me - sauce on a sandwich? No thanks. And what toppings can you put on that? Only cheese? Boring. But then I made Jaime Oliver’s meatball buns and boy, was I made to look a fool. It’s absurd that I thought a meatball sub wouldn’t be good. I love pasta, pizza, burgers - all tomato-y, sauce-y, chees-y, bun-y things! I’m forever a convert now; meatball subs for life!
Tonight’s takes:
Husband: “I don’t know if brioche was the best choice. Too American. Ciabatta next time. It’s obviously good though.” Later: “Please note the brioche was my choice so it doesn’t seem like I’m always criticizing you.”
Helen (6 years old): “Good. I love it. Better than amazing!” Later: “I’m killing for more. Is there more? If I was you I’d make 100 more so I could eat them all.”
Hector (3 1/2 years old): “Look at my mean boy burger! I like the tomato and the chicken. They are really good.”
My pesto was bad when I took it out of the fridge, so I pivoted to A16’s meatball recipe. I mashed the two of them together for the final dish.
What I used:
Caveat - PK wanted extra meatballs so I made a triple batch. I only cooked 1/3 (of the meatball mixture) tonight. I’ll freeze the other 2/3.
~800g ground beef
450g Italian pork sausage
3 eggs
~ 1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
398ml can whole tomatoes
1 cup tomato sauce (leftover from homemade pizza night)
6 thick slices of mozzarella cheese, cut into 13 squares
brioche buns
What I did:
Measured out ground beef.
Removed sausage meat from casing. Added to beef.
Added the rest of the ingredients, excluding the tomatoes, tomato sauce, and cheese.
Mixed meatballs together. Used my masher.
Added lots of oil to braising pan. Turned burner to medium-high heat.
Once oil was to temp, scooped and formed meatballs. Added them to the pan. I fit 13 tonight. Made sure not to overcrowd so they would brown nicely. Put the rest of the meatball mixture in the freezer.
Used splatter guard; sautéing meatballs is greasy business.
Jiggled pan aggressively every minute or so, ensuring meatballs browned evenly. After 10 minutes, they looked done.
Added canned tomatoes and tomato sauce. Added about 1/2 cup water as well - used it to wash out the can and the container.
Per Jaime’s instructions - pressed down on meatballs with tongs, breaking them apart ever so slightly.
Sliced cheese into little squares - made sure to have 13 pieces.
Once sauce was boiling, added cheese on top of meatballs. Put lid on. Set timer for 5 minutes.
Sliced buns.
After 5 minutes, done!
Served! Made sure to scoop sauce onto both sides of the bun.
Next time:
Make sure pesto hasn’t expired. There was a lot of sauce; next time I’d use a bit less tomatoes/tomato sauce. Probably should have had a vegetable dish tonight… maybe next time I’ll serve green beans or broccoli. But truthfully, it was f’ing delicious. We were taking the last bits of our buns and scooping sauce right out of the pan with them, like heathens. Glorious, meatball bun eating, heathens.
Make this. You deserve it.
😋😋😋
-Ellisa