Who has a kitchen scale in their house? Who routinely uses it? Start using it!
We have this Escali one that Alton Brown suggested and love it. It’s super affordable (find it here) and might become your new favorite kitchen tool. We whipped ours out to make these delicious meatball sandwiches! For something like meatballs where you want them to all be the same size, a scale is super important. These guys were 2.5 ounces each but you could go bigger or smaller, depending on your preference for sandwiches!
The best thing about cooking these meatballs in a cast iron skillet is that you can pop them right into the oven and never have to switch pans. We seared them in the pan for a few minutes on each side and finished in the oven for about 20 minutes, but you could probably do a little less too. Just make sure they get to 165 degrees F for safe meatball sandwich eating.
We have this awesome local market near us called Carfagna’s. They have all the homemade Italian goods you need like sauces, cannolis, pastas, and a huge variety of meats. We actually used their meatball mix which is a blend of beef, pork, and delicious seasonings. If you don’t want to purchase a meatball mix, no worries because you can easily make your own! I’ll toss those details in the notes section below.
We also opted for Carfagna’s pizza sauce to use on our meatball sandwiches! Their sauces are seriously amazing – if you aren’t in Ohio, you can purchase them online here.
It isn’t a proper meatball sandwich without some onions and peppers! We decided to mix it up and use some hot peppers sliced up with our onions. They definitely weren’t too spicy but you could use regular bell peppers too if you prefer. Just sauté them all together until your desired caramelization.
Now for my favorite part of meatball sandwiches – the CHEESE. Our friends over at Cabot Creamery sent us a TON of cracker sized cheeses as a thanks for our involvement in #BurgerMonth. They are actually the perfect size for a meatball sandwich and melt wonderfully on top of the finished product. We used white cheddar for this recipe but you could use whatever cheese is your favorite!
You can just toss your sandwich on a cookie sheet and turn the broiler on for 2-3 minutes to melt your cheese. But, set a timer – speaking from personal experience here. There you have it folks, an easy peasy and delicious meatball sandwich!
- 1 1/2 lbs ground meatball mix (see notes below for alternative)
- 3 small hot peppers, sliced
- 2 white onions, sliced
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 4 sub buns
- white cheddar cheese
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Form meatball mixture into 2.5oz balls, using a kitchen scale.
- Add 1 Tablespoon of oil to cast iron skillet and warm to medium heat. One by one, add the meatballs and cook on each side for about 2-3 minutes until outside of meatball is nice and toasty.
- Then, place entire cast iron pan in oven and cook for 15-20 minutes, until meatballs have an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
- While the meatballs are in the oven, prepare your veggies and sauce.
- Add 1 Tablespoon to pan and saute sliced onions and peppers for about 10-12 minutes, until desired caramelization.
- In a small saucepan, warm pizza sauce, careful that it doesn't "pop" all over your stove.
- Remove meatballs from oven and create your sandwich!
- Layer sauce, peppers and onions, meatballs and top with white cheddar cheese. Lay sandwiches on a cookie sheet, place in oven and broil for 2-3 minutes to melt the cheese.
- Remove from oven and enjoy!
- If you don't purchase a pre-made meatball mix - look for your favorite meatball from scratch recipe. We'll post one soon for this reason!
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