Meatball Sub

Just about every day, Eric walks by the Subway in the train station in San Francisco. Every now and again, there is something cooking (okay, something being heated in the microwave) that smells so good it ruins Eric's commute, because he sits on the train, hungry. That something is the meatball sub. Now granted, Subway's try at it doesn't taste nearly as good as say the Amato's sandwich in Saratoga but a meatball sub smells like a meatball sub no matter who makes it. And it always makes Eric hungry.

So the other day he gets home from work and found his thought process going something along the lines of "meatball sub meatball sub meatball sub meatball sub say hi to wife meatball sub meatball sub meatball sub say hi to dog meatball sub meatball sub stop drolling meatball sub meatball sub". Needless to say convincing Charisse to whip up a batch of meatballs and some sauce was a pretty easy sell. We'd like to point out that you can also serve this sauce and meatball combo over noodles, it makes a dish called "Spaghetti and Meatballs".

No matter how you try, a bowl full of ground beef always looks like a bowl full of zombie brains. 

Meatballs
What You Will Need

1/2 lb ground beef
3 cloves garlic (minced)
2 eggs
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano



Quick Tomato Sauce
What You Will Need

1 large can of tomato puree
a large handful of fresh basil (minced)
some fresh parsley (minced)
1/2 onion (minced)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
salt 
pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp sugar

5 slices each mozzarella and provolone cheese
4 large sandwich buns toasted 

Preheat Broiler 

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until well mixed.  Form your meatballs.  I like mine about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter, a little bigger than bite size but feel free to make yours any size you like.  In a large skillet add enough oil to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.  Heat and brown each meatball on all sides.

In the meantime make the quick tomato sauce.  In a small sauce pot, heat a small bit of olive oil and brown the onions and garlic until soft and fragrant.  Add the tomato puree and all spices.  Heat through and season up a bit to taste.  Set aside. 

In a baking dish place the meatballs in a single layer and pour all of the quick tomato sauce over them.  If you used a cast iron skillet to brown your meatballs like we did you can just put the sauce right into the skillet.  Top with slices of both mozzarella and provolone cheese and pop the entire thing under the broiler for around 15 minutes or until the cheese becomes bubbly and a bit browned.  

Scoop 2-3 meatballs into a toasted roll and pour a bit of the sauce on top.