Bigly Italian Meatball Sub
Prep
25m
Cook
40m
Total
65m
Bigly says
Folks. The meatball sub. THE MEATBALL SUB. This is the sandwich that built civilizations. Many people don't know this, but the meatball sub is responsible for at least three major construction projects in the New York metropolitan area. The bricklayers, the steelworkers, generations of guys hauling steel up into the sky — they fueled empires on meatball subs, and most of those subs were SAD. Imagine that. Imagine building a skyscraper on a sad meatball sub. Heartbreaking. Tragic.
The deli down the street from me charges TWELVE DOLLARS for one. TWELVE. DOLLARS. For a sandwich. And the meatballs come out gray and dense and the bread is soggy and the cheese is barely melted, sitting on top, depressed, not engaged with the project at all. Twelve dollars to be DISAPPOINTED. Other sites won't even tell you what's wrong with it — they'd rather show you 18 popups and a full-screen cookie banner before you scroll past their ad-stuffed garbage to the actual recipe. Not here. We get to the meatball. We get to the meatball IMMEDIATELY.
The secret — the one most chefs won't admit because it sounds boring — is bread soaked in milk. A panade. The Italians figured this out hundreds of years ago and never looked back, and yet there are recipe writers in this country still telling you to use DRY breadcrumbs. Dry breadcrumbs make a hockey puck. Dry breadcrumbs make a meatball that BOUNCES, and meatballs should not bounce, meatballs should YIELD. A meatball should yield like a tired man at the end of a long day. The panade is non-negotiable. So is San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce, and so is low-moisture mozzarella for the broiler finish, and so is a crusty Italian roll. Cut a corner on any of those four and you've ruined the sub. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 1 lbground beef (80/20)
- 1/2 lbground pork(the pork is non-negotiable, do not skip the pork)
- 2 slicescrustless white bread, torn
- 1/2 cupwhole milk
- 1large egg
- 1/2 cupgrated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 4 clovesgarlic, minced
- 3 tbspfresh parsley, chopped
- 1.5 tspkosher salt
- 1 tspblack pepper
- 1/2 tspred pepper flakes
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 28 ozcanned crushed tomatoes (San Marzano)(San Marzano, accept no substitutes, this is a battle worth fighting)
- 1yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1/4 cupfresh basil leaves, torn
- 4Italian sub rolls(crusty outside, soft inside, this is the law)
- 2 cupslow-moisture mozzarella, shredded
Steps
- 1
In a small bowl, soak the torn bread in the milk for 5 minutes until it forms a paste. Mash with a fork.
- 2
In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, bread paste, egg, Parmigiano, half the garlic, parsley, 1 tsp salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Mix gently with your hands — just until combined, do not overwork.
- 3
Roll into 12 meatballs, roughly 2 ounces each (a little smaller than a golf ball). Refrigerate 15 minutes to firm up.
- 4
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the meatballs in batches, turning, until deeply browned on all sides (about 6-8 minutes per batch). Transfer to a plate. They won't be fully cooked through — that's fine.
- 5
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion to the pot and cook 4 minutes until softened. Add the remaining garlic and oregano and cook 30 seconds until fragrant.
- 6
Pour in the crushed tomatoes and the remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer.
- 7
Nestle the meatballs back into the sauce. Cover partially and simmer over low heat for 25-30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Stir in the fresh basil.
- 8
Heat the broiler. Slice the rolls open lengthwise without cutting all the way through. Place on a sheet pan and toast under the broiler for 30-60 seconds until lightly golden.
- 9
Spoon 3 meatballs and plenty of sauce into each roll. Top with shredded mozzarella.
- 10
Return the loaded subs to the broiler for 1-2 minutes, just until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and lightly browned in spots. Watch carefully — it goes fast.
- 11
Serve immediately with extra sauce on the side and napkins. Many, many napkins.
One more thing
That's the sub. The one your grandmother wishes she could make. The one the deli charges twelve dollars for and STILL gets wrong. You bite in, the sauce runs down your wrist, the cheese stretches out three feet in a long beautiful string, and you close your eyes and something clicks. The bricklayers understood. The steelworkers understood. Now you understand too. Plate them up, grab a stack of napkins — many, many napkins — and stop reading. Now go eat.
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