Oven Baked Meatball Sub Sandwiches

By dette

These look absolutely marvelous! Super easy to make and would be perfect served with a side salad. I saw these on Home Cooking Memories where she shows how you can wrap them in aluminum foil if you are having a party to keep them warm and individual. Great idea. Love this and will be making this a regular in our house, especially during football season!!!! YUM!


If you don't have a good meatball recipe you can use the ones I made with the Swedish Meatballs and Gravy post I did. You can half the recipe if you want. I love these meatballs.

The key to making great meatballs is using ground pork AND ground beef. If you want to use my meatball recipe here it is below.

Ingredients

• Meatballs
• 1 lb of ground beef
• 1 lb of ground pork
• 1 large white or yellow onion
• 2 T. of butter
• allspice seasoning
• nutmeg seasoning
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. pepper
• 5 slices white bread
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 2 eggs
• Turkey Meatballs with Spinach
• Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional - adjust to your preference)
• 16 oz frozen chopped spinach (defrosted, drained, and squeezed to remove excess water)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 2 1/2 lbs lean ground turkey
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
• 2 large eggs
• Ingredients
• Sandwich rolls (cut with one side intact)
• Cooked Meatballs (your favorite recipe or frozen, pre-made meatballs)
• Pasta Sauce (homemade or jarred)
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Preparation

Step 1

Instructionsn For Turkey Meatballs
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a large baking sheet by spraying with cooking spray. I actually line my baking sheet with foil and then spray with cooking spray.
2.In a frying pan on medium heat, heat olive oil until hot. Then add onion, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Sauté until onion is tender (about 5-6 minutes total time).
3.Add spinach to pan and combine with onion mixture. Add Worcestershire sauce and chicken broth and mix well to combine. Cook until most of the liquid has cooked out (evaporated). I don't have much liquid in my pan after I combine all these, but it will depend on how well you drained your spinach. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
4.In a large bowl, combine the turkey, bread crumbs, and egg. Add cooled onion/spinach mixture to the meat. I do all of this step with my hands, but you can use a spoon if you prefer.
5.5. With your hands, create meatballs that are about 1 - 1 1/2 inches in diameter and place them on the baking sheet. Leave a little bit of space between each meatball. When you are done shaping your meatballs, you will probably have about 40-42 meatballs from this recipe. Don't need that many? Freeze them after baking or cut this recipe in half (but I say freeze them and then you've done the work only once and have a future meal).
6.Bake until your meatballs are cooked through with an internal temperature of 160 degrees F - which was about 20 minutes for my oven. Remove from oven and serve as desired.

Instructions
1.Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2.Place your frozen cooked meatballs or homemade cooked meatballs in a large pot. Cover with your pasta sauce. Gently fold the meatballs with the sauce, Heat the meatballs and sauce on low-medium, stirring occasionally, until the meatballs are heated thoroughly.
3.Fill a roll with as many meatballs as you can fit (usually 4-5 meatballs, depends on size of meatballs and the size of the roll). Top with more pasta sauce from your pot. Place filled sandwich rolls closely on baking sheet. Top each sandwich with shredded mozzarella cheese.
4.Bake until cheese is melted, hot, and bubbly.