Meatball Subs - Steve Cooks

Alright Crushers,

Today I'm going to do my best to write out how to make meatball subs the Steve way. This is a little difficult for me because he doesn't really measure anything. Instead, I will try to give you approximate amounts. 

Chef Steve
Isn't he handsome?

Note: Steve has full ability to edit this, so you might want to come back later and see what he's changed. In the meantime, he's got long days ahead of him this week with parent-teacher conferences!

OK, so here is what he did:

Meatball Subs
Ingredients (approximate):
1 ground pound mild Italian sausage
1 ground beef (at least 85% lean)
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs (maybe? I have no idea - he just sprinkled them in there)
1 cup-ish spinach, cut into small bits (two handfuls?)
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 jar marinara sauce
1/2 sliced peppers
about 8-9 hot beans (his dad's recipe, which also is never quite the same)
4 deli brat buns

In case you're wondering what hot beans look like, that's them.
Some people call them dilly beans.

Instructions:
In a large bowl, you combine one pound each of the sausage and ground beef. Add the diced spinach, garlic, and onion until it looks about right. You can add more or less of these items, but be careful that you don't add too much or they could get soggy and break apart.


Oh, you should probably preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (You may want to enlist your wife or someone else to turn on the oven for you if your hands are covered in meat mix - see next paragraph). Take a large baking sheet and line it with aluminum foil (I'm adding the foil part now since we forgot to do it on Sunday - easier clean up!). Then take a baking rack and place it on top of the foil-lined pan. Spray it with some cooking spray so the meatballs don't get stuck. This way they bake nicely and a lot of the grease drips off.

See? We forgot the foil. Oh well, they still turned out great!

Add in the egg and bread crumbs. Then, use your hands to mix everything up and make sure it's all well incorporated. (Steve made a point to note that while his hands were washed, he did this all without taking off his wedding ring). Mold the meat mix into balls that are a little big bigger than golf balls and try to make them a consistent size.

Place them on the cooking rack with about 2-inches between them. Put the whole pan in the oven for 20 minutes or until they're fully cooked. They will shrink a bit, but not that much!

All ready for sauce!

While those are baking, go wash your hands and start on the sauce. Heat the contents of a jar of marinara sauce in a sauce pan along with some ground pepper, a little salt, your sliced peppers and hot beans. Heat it until it bubbles and then turn down the heat or it will splash all over the place.

When the meatballs are done, place about 3 of them on a bun and cover in the marinara sauce. Make sure you get a few peppers and hot beans on there, too. Sprinkle your favorite cheese on top. Then try and eat it without splashing marinara sauce all over the place!

Feel free to add as much or as little sauce as you like.

Enjoy!

Baked Meatballs and Spaghetti

Good morning Crushers!

As promised, here is the recipe for baked meatballs. You could use these on a sandwich with a little melted cheese and green peppers, as an appetizer with some BBQ sauce, or with spaghetti noodles like we did on Sunday night. They were so easy to make and it made for delicious leftovers to take to lunch the next day!

This is going to be a short post because I know you'll definitely want to run out and make these! No time to waste reading when you could be enjoying these, right?

Baked Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef, thawed (you could use ground pork, turkey, chicken or a combination)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian seasoned ones since that was in the pantry)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (I used a garlic press)
1 tbsp milk (optional)
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (I ran out mid teaspoon, so I gave it an oomph with some oregano, but wished I had parsley)
Salt and Pepper - just a dash of each, but no more than 1/8 tsp.
Optional add ins: spinach, finely diced mushrooms, finely diced onions - I added these to the sauce instead of the meatballs.

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and have the following items on hand: a baking sheet, a cooking/cooling rack, canola oil spray (or your favorite kind) and a large bowl.

Mix Everything except the meat in a large bowl so it has the consistency of a paste. If you did use the milk, it'll be a bit creamier than if you didn't.

I have no idea why there is a halo-ish light in the bowl.
It's either a reflection or the ingredients are ready for meatball heaven.

Before you get your hands all dirty, set the rack on the baking sheet and give it a quick layer of cooking spray. All of the grease from the meat will drip off on to the baking sheet. If you REALLY hate cleaning up grease, you could line it with aluminum foil, too. Then you just toss it out when it's cooled.

Break up the ground beef into crumbles. As you know, I'm a big fan of using ground beef that is at least 80/20. Anything less than 80 is too greasy! Back to the crumbles, add them into the mixture and make sure that it all gets well mixed so that you don't have lumps of bread crumbs in your meatballs. In order to make sure that everything was really squished together, I just took off my rings and used my hands. It feels squishy, but it's really the easiest way to do it. Form the mixture into golf-ball sized meatballs and place on the rack. They will shrink a bit, so don't worry if they are too close to each other.

Ready for the oven!

After you've washed your hands, put the meatballs in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until they're no longer pink. The internal temperature should be at least 160. Remove from the rack and place on paper towels to get rid of any remaining grease, but there won't be much!

Fresh from the oven, these meatballs are just waiting for a sandwich or some pasta!

Like I said before, there are many ways to serve up meatballs in sandwiches, with pasta or just alone with a dipping sauce (if you make them with pork or chicken, try it with a nice sweet and sour sauce - SO GOOD!). We went with traditional spaghetti noodles and a jar of pasta sauce that I added lots of veggies to to ramp up the vitamins! I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Where's my fork?