06 April 2014


It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

Secret Recipe Club

This month I was assigned the blog Kitchen Trial and Error, written by Kate, a wife and mom of one with another on the way this month (congrats Kate!) in Rochester, New York.  I was familiar with Kate's blog and have had it on my blog reader for a long time.  So I knew I would have no problem finding something yummy to make this month.  Funny story: when I received my assignment, I started exploring Kate's blog to decide what to make.  Pretty quickly, I found her Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Drumsticks.  First, it sounded really good, then it started sounding really familiar.  Not only had I pinned that recipe when she first posted it, but it was actually on my meal plan for that week!  What a coincidence!  Unfortunately, I couldn't use it for my SRC post because that recipe is so awesome that Ilona's Kitchen picked it last month when she was assigned Kate's blog.  But I had no trouble finding other options.  I considered her Pretzel Chicken with Mustard Cheese Sauce, Soy-Glazed Cod with Zucchini, and White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Blondies before settling on something very classic.  Something classic and relatively simple, but something I had not ever made before: Meatball Subs.  

Meatball Subs

Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 eggs
¼ cup grated Parmesan
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tsp Italian seasoning (Pasta Sprinkle)
½ tsp salt
1 jar pasta sauce
6  sub rolls
1½  cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine ground beef, eggs, parmesan, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, and salt.  Mix well.  Form into 2 tbsp-sized balls and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.  Remove from oven; do not turn oven off.

Heat pasta sauce in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  When meatballs are done, remove meatballs from baking sheet and place them in the sauce.  

Split the sub rolls and place 4-5 meatballs and some sauce on each one.  Top with mozzarella and place on a baking sheet.  Put them on the top rack of the oven and bake a few more minutes, just until the cheese melts.  Remove from oven and serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.



Why have I never made these before?  I knew my husband liked them because he orders them at restaurants, but I never thought to make them at home.  There's no reason not to, as they are really easy to make.  I love Kate's recipe because it's a great combo of homemade and convenience.  Homemade meatballs and jarred pasta sauce.  I'm not a big fan of making my own tomato sauces, but I much prefer homemade meatballs to the frozen kind.  So Kate's recipe was absolutely perfect for me.

Kate used a mini muffin pan to make her meatballs, but I don't have one (I have regular, square, heart-shaped and jumbo muffin tins but no mini!), so I used my 2 tbsp measuring spoon and that seemed to be just the right size.  I think I got about 30 meatballs that way.  It was more than we needed for dinner that night, but my husband loved having subs for lunches the next two days.

My husband and my kids loved these.  Messy, but good!  I made the mistake of trying to melt the cheese with the broiler the second time around and even though they were in there for only a minute, the bread burned, so definitely do it like Kate says and use the 400° oven instead.

I was a little conservative with the cheese on the sandwich in these picks because I wanted you to be able to see the yummy meatballs.  But feel free to pile it on for the ultimate gooey melty cheesy experience.

Thanks for a great recipe, Kate!




   

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8 comments:

  1. I think the meatball sub is one of my favorite foods, especially with crusty bread. I love the roll you chose.

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  2. These look so ooey-gooey-cheesy good! I'm kind of tempted to stop by the store on the way home to get some ground beef and make some of these for my dinner, because I love me a good meatball sandwich.

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  3. I went through a meatball phase a while ago and made some wonderful sandwiches. That was a while ago! These look so good. I need to make meatball sandwiches again soon.

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  4. Looks good, as always, Lesa! I love it when a classic shows up as an SRC pick. And yes, I consider meatball subs classics :)

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  5. I love meatballs and i love subs, but I've never had one of these. This looks like an amazing sandwich. I know my husband would love these too. Great pick Lesa!

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  6. I bet the kids loved them! I'm sure I would too.

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  7. That is one hardy and yummy looking sub! Great choice!

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  8. sigh, I miss bread. I'll bet meatball subs would be a big hit here, too, with all boys. Hmmm, I am going to have to try that--tonight? I've even recently had a kid ask me why I never made meatballs. Perfect.

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