Serious Eats: Recipes
Dinner Tonight: Meatball Sub
I'm not sure where the spark came from, but sometime last week I set forth on a mission to create a meatball sub. I figured this would be laughably easy. From what I could tell, there were only four elements: meatballs, sauce, bun, and cheese. But most recipes waste well over 12 ingredients on meatballs alone, which put them out of the Dinner Tonight territory before I even began. My goal then became to make a tasty meatball sub in less than an hour using as few ingredients as possible. And I needed to make the meatballs from scratch. For help I consulted the Joy of Cooking, which cut down the meatball ingredients without compromising loads of flavor.
The sauce stumped me for a while--until I just picked up a freshly made batch from my local market. I'd suggest using your favorite simple tomato sauce. The meatballs are the real star.
Though I had to cut back on a few ingredients, the sub sure didn't taste like scrimping was involved. It's a mammoth sandwich, nearly impossible to contain in a single bun. Sauce drips off the side, and the luscious meatballs attempt to roll out whenever possible. After mingling with the meat, the sauce becomes rich and luscious and the cheese somehow brings the crazy sandwich all together.
