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Cheesy Knife-&-Fork Meatball Subs

Source of Recipe

From "Cravings: Hungry for More" by Chrissy Teigen


Recipe Introduction

"I think I've lived within a mile of a Subway sandwich shop my entire life, so basically I have consumed approximately 8.1 million meatballs, which makes me just 0.9 million meatballs away from being an expert meatball connoisseur. And now you've learned I am just one of the few complete psychopaths out there who actually gets the meatball sub at Subway. My meatballs are like if Subway's meatballs were real meatballs made by a human. They're fluffy, moist, tender. The sauce (that needs to be jarred and sold immediately with a straw you could drink it with) ooooozes into the toasty hot dog buns' garlic bread. These meatballs are the ONLY thing that got me through the horror that was November 8, 2016. I think I managed to keep them down for two hours."

List of Ingredients

For the sauce:
â—¦  6 tablespoons olive oil
â—¦  1 jumbo onion, finely chopped
â—¦  8 cloves garlic, minced
â—¦  ½ cup tomato paste
â—¦  3 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes in juice
â—¦  2 teaspoons dried oregano
â—¦  2 teaspoons dried basil
â—¦  2 teaspoons kosher salt
â—¦  2 teaspoons sugar

For the meatballs:
â—¦  ¾ cup fresh bread crumbs
â—¦  â…“ cup whole milk
â—¦  1 egg, beaten
â—¦  ½ pound ground beef
â—¦  ½ pound ground pork
â—¦  ¾ cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
â—¦  1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
â—¦  1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
â—¦  ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
â—¦  1 teaspoon dried oregano
â—¦  1 teaspoon dried basil
â—¦  3 tablespoons olive oil

For the subs:
â—¦  4 plain old hot dog buns (nothing fancy)
â—¦  4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
â—¦  Garlic salt
â—¦  8 round slices provolone cheese, halved
â—¦  Chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish (optional)


Recipe

Make the sauce:
In a wide soup pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until golden, 8 to 9 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 additional minute. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juice, the oregano, basil, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes. Blend the sauce in the pot with a stick blender (or in two batches in a stand blender) until smooth. Return the sauce to a simmer and cook for an additional 15 minutes. (You should have about 6 cups sauce.)

Meanwhile, form the meatballs:
Place the bread crumbs in a large bowl. Add the milk, stir to moisten, and let the bread crumbs soak up the milk for 5 minutes. Stir in the egg. Add the beef, pork, Parm, garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil and gently mix everything together with your hands, being careful not to overmix the meat (that leads to tough balls). Moisten your hands and form the mixture into 12 meatballs, each slightly larger than a golf ball.

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides, turning so they don't get too crusty, 5 to 6 minutes total. When the sauce is ready, gently drop the meatballs into the sauce, cover, and simmer over low heat until the meatballs have cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Make the subs:
Preheat the broiler. Split the rolls open, spread with the softened butter, and sprinkle them with as much garlic salt as you want (in my case, obviously, a lot). Place each roll on a broiler-proof plate or dish and broil until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Arrange 3 meatballs, 4 provolone halves, and some sauce on top of each broiled bun and return to the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbling, another 2 minutes or so. Garnish with parsley, if you want.

(Extra sauce can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to one month.)

Serves 4