Little Balls of Meat

I recently moved to Covington, and one of the things I quickly learned about the area is the huge amount of local butchers. I've been in a few of the shops, and while some look more presentable than others, the main idea is that local small shops seem to do meat better than the big chains.

I got a package deal from one local butcher (a fifty year old one) that included some ground chuck and ground sausage. Ordinarily, these would become tacos or cheeseburgers with some breakfast sausage patties thrown in for good measure, but today I wanted something a little different. We scored some free hoagie buns from the mother in law (who is on a low-carb diet), so I decided to try my hand at some meatball subs.

In a big bowl, drop in about a pound of ground beef. I use ground chuck because I like the mix of fat to protein. Seems to have a better flavor than some of the other 'cuts'.

Add to this about a half cup of fresh cut basil (which everyone should be growing) and as much garlic as you can stand. I used five big cloves, minced.

Add a pound of pork sausage. Mine was a little brown because it was frozen and I wanted to defrost it quickly in the microwave.

Add two eggs and two cups of breadcrumbs. We get a big carton of breadcrumbs already mixed with "Italian seasoning". Whatever, it tastes good, and is like a third of the price of fancy-pants panko crumbs.

Make sure your hands are clean, take off your rings, and get in there with your hands. Just mush everything up and don't stop until everything is equally mixed. If everything seems really dry and isn't combining together, add a half cup of milk or so.

The mix isn't really done until everything has noticeable tinges of green, white, brown, and red all throughout. Think play-dough as consistency for a good ball.

Spread out some foil on a cookie sheet (I used a half-sheet pan for mine), and roll the balls. If you plan on using these for spaghetti you may want them a bit smaller or bigger. Mine were a little larger than ping-pong ball sized.

I used a soup can for size demonstration.

Into a 400 degree (Fahrenheit, because I live in the states) oven for about twenty minutes. In this picture, my balls were cooking for about fifteen. They will drop a small amount of grease and get brown and crispy on the outside.

For the greater good, you have to sacrifice a ball. Just cut one in half to make sure the inside is brown.

For my subs, I baked the buns for about five minutes to get them crispy (they were pre-baked), and then spread some spicy marinara sauce on the bottom bun. Four half-balls to a bun.

Smother the meatballs with more sauce, then spread some mozzarella on top. Toss these back into the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and heat the sauce up.

Meatball subs were once the bane of my existence at local pizza shops. They were always dry, always made a big mess, and just didn't seem very edible.

With a side of chips and five minutes to wolf everything down, we were very pleased with how everything turned out.

The best part? We still have fourteen meatballs left over after these sandwiches to do with as we please. They should last a few days in the fridge or even longer in the freezer, but once you get a taste, they won't have to.