Italian Meatball Subs
These Italian meatball subs are filling, hearty and crazy delicious. The meatballs can be made ahead of time and it makes the dish a snap to throw together.
Oooh, I love meatball subs. And this particular version is the best. Ever.
This meal makes a monthly appearance in our home, at least, thanks to my wonderful friend, Mariann, who passed it along to me several years ago.
A surefire hit for a meal my kids and husband will devour with no complaining, these subs are filling, hearty and the flavors are crazy delicious.
The great thing is that the meatballs can be made ahead of time and the sauce is a snap to throw together and heat through.
I use the amazing and versatile French Bread roll recipe for the buns and the combination of the soft, homemade bread, creamy mozzarella cheese and out-of-this-world tender and flavorful meatballs smothered in rich tomato sauce is a meal made in heaven.
This is one of my go-to meals for company or when I am taking dinner to someone.
Just last week, I made the meatballs subs and served them with a large green salad, fresh fruit and vegetables, baked chips and a trifle dessert I’ll be posting next week that is so stunning and tasty, it’s a wonder I shared it with the guests at all (I’m quite territorial over good food, I must admit).
What to Serve With This
- French Bread Rolls (for the bun)
- An awesome side like this: Barbecue Macaroni Salad, Coleslaw, or these Boston Baked Beans
- Fresh vegetables and/or green salad
Italian Meatball Subs
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs or crushed saltines
- ¾ cup shredded Parmesan or mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup low-sodium beef broth
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- 2 pounds ground beef or ground turkey
To dredge the meatballs:
- 1 ½ cups flour in a shallow baking dish
For the sandwiches:
- 1 recipe French Bread Rolls, shaped into sub rolls and baked according to the recipe
- Sliced mozzarella or provolone cheese
For the sauce:
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon sugar, this helps cut the acidity of the tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix all of the meatball ingredients together EXCEPT the meat. Let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes so the breadcrumbs/crackers can soak up the liquid a little bit. Add the meat and mix well with your hands until all the ingredients are combined.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and lightly grease the foil. Form golf ball-sized meatballs and dredge them in the flour until lightly coated. Place the meatballs on the baking sheet about one inch apart. Bake for 20 -25 minutes until the meatballs are completely cooked through.
- When the meatballs come out of the oven, let them sit for about 15 minutes. Gently scrape off any fat and place the meatballs in a 9X13-inch baking dish (or similar size). Pour the hot tomato sauce over the meatballs.
- To assemble the sandwiches, slice the buns in half. (If desired, lay the buns flat open on a baking sheet and top one side with cheese – toast in the oven for 4-5 minutes at 400 degrees until the buns are toasted and cheese is melted.) Place 3-4 meatballs on each bun and top with desired amount of sauce. Serve immediately with lots of napkins.
- For the sauce, combine the sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a low simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes on low. Keep warm until the meatballs are finished baking.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from my friend, Mariann
I admit, I was a little hesitant about the recipe. I didn’t think the sauce had enough flavor. However, this dish is delicious. Once the meatballs were ready, I placed them in a 9×13 dish, added the sauce, placed the mozzarella cheese on top, and placed it back in the oven for the cheese to melt. OMG.. talking about good. My 17-year-old loves Firehouse meatball sub, he loved these.
Thank you!
One of our all time favorite meals! It’s a wonderful meal to take in to friends, and always requested for our annual Lake Powell trip.
My family was bowled over by these subs! The meatballs were tasty, the sauce easy to make, and the suggested French Bread Roll recipe was phenomenal. Great “Football Sunday” meal that I highly recommend.
Explain the process we used for making broth from a base. I want to know the amounts we used as well.
I made these meatballs to go with your instant pot “baked” ziti, and I made it with 1.5 times the sauce ingredients so it was extra saucy to eat with meat balls and garlic bread. It was so good!! Love these meatballs. Someday I will have some meaty cheese on hand to eat them in a sub. Mouth watering!
I’ve made this many times, it’s a huge hit with the family. I’ve made it exactly to the recipe several times and I’ve started to make changes. I’ve found that any bread or cracker crumbs work fine. Sometimes I add extra so the meatballs are easier to form. I like a pound of sirloin and a pound of ground pork instead of turkey. These meatballs are also great with Mel’s “best homemade” spaghetti sauce over pasta. I made the sauce without meat and I froze half the meatballs and half of the sauce and the family devoured the rest. You know they love it when everyone is silent at the dinner table!
These were DELICIOUS! I made the meatballs the night before and froze them unbaked so that we could just throw everything together at dinner. I’d agree with another commenter-I’d double the sauce! But, I honestly didn’t mind having some leftover because we froze the ones we didn’t put in the sauce so that we can just make the sauce next time and throw them in! So easy and couldn’t believe the flavor without taking the time to brown them.
Also, as a side note, my 16 month old son INAHALED THESE. Which was truthfully a gift from God. Sweet guy loves to eat cheese and fruit, but we struggle getting protein in him. He ate more meatballs than my husband and I combined but we RAN WITH IT because PTL he was eating protein! So thank you for sharing true family friendly recipes. I’ve cooked from your blog for YEARS but it’s a whole other level of connection with your recipes when I make them for my sweet guy. Thank you so much for doing what you do!!
Thank you so much, Kayla! That is awesome that your son devoured these. Love that! I have a son who doesn’t love meat/protein and I would feel the same way!
YUM!!! But next time I will definitely double the sauce.
Hi Mel….I know it should be self explanitory on getting the bread recipie you’ve suggested and turning them into the different shaped buns…but is there someplace you’ve shown us how to do it? Burger buns, or hotdog, or the small sub buns as listed here? I just don’t wanna wing it…I’d like to know going in, aprox how much dividing of the dough, and go from there?
Thanks bunches!!
Debbie.
Hey Debbie – I did a video tip about this several years ago: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/video-tip-how-to-shape-dinner-rolls/
No eggs in the meatballs?
Mel, have you ever baked these and then frozen them? We like the Costco frozen meatballs for a quick dinner but I would happily replace those in my freezer with these.
Yes, it works great!
I’ve been making meatballs for years and thought, as another poster did, “I don’t need this recipe”. Well, I decided to give it a try. Holy Italy! These are the BEST meatballs I’ve ever had! I use them for everything, subs, spaghetti, pizza…you name it. My husband’s comment was, “you could make money selling these subs”. He’s a food snob, and critiques everything! When he says it’s good….it’s GREAT!
Make these subs….NOW! You will be glad you did.
For the record, I’ve made them Mel’s way, by dredging them in flour before cooking, but I don’t any more, as I am lazy and have started skipping that step. It doesn’t make that big of a difference, in my opinion.
Why do you put the meatballs in flour before you bake them? Just curious!
Thanks!
I like the extra bit of firmness/crustiness it gives the outside of the meatball.
I just made these today! My family LOVED them. It is a keeper! Thanks for the great recipe!! I definitely will make these again. So flavorful!! You are an amazing cook!
Thank you, Jennifer!
I made them tonight for the first time. These are amazing!! So very very good. I can’t even wait to make these all the time.
This is by far my family’s favorite meal! As in, we eat in silence because every bite is so wonderfully good. I make the recipe exactly as written, including the homemade french bread rolls. It is more of a time-consuming recipe (I usually put it together on the weekend to save time during the week), but SO worth it!
Meatballs come out amazing! First time used ground turkey. My daughter woofed them down, this time I’m using 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 ground mild Italian sausage. Can’t wait to taste. They smell amazing baking.
Every single time I make these (and I think the tally is nearing a dozen times now), I regret not doubling it to toss a batch in the freezer. These are our favorite meatballs!
These were absolutely delicious! I am not a meatball person at all but my friend raved about this recipe so I gave it a try. These sandwiches were SO YUMMY that we had them again the very next night! I used a store-bought hoagie roll for convenience. My daughter loved mixing up all the ingredients for the meatballs with her hands. We used a cookie scoop to keep the size consistent then hand rolled them before baking.
I love these sandwiches! They are in our regular rotation and I never bother with other meatball sub recipes I come across. One question though…do your meatballs stay nice and round? I always use ground turkey and mine never hold that shape very well and always flatten on the bottom. Not a huge deal, but I just wondered if there is anything you would suggest to help them hold their shape better. More bread crumbs maybe?
Hey Catherine – my meatballs sometimes look a little misshapen, too. They aren’t always perfectly round, kind of depends on the brand of ground turkey I’m using and if I’ve eyeballed the recipe or really followed it. 🙂 If you want a sturdier meatball, try more bread crumbs, like you suggested – that should help (or cut down on the liquid).
I love going through your archives and finding new meals for my family. I’ve never been a huge fan of meatball subs, but man oh man. My husband declared these as on of the best things I’ve ever made for him. Both my kids (4 & 2) ate them up. I did half beef half turkey, and of course I somehow managed to forget the Parmesan cheese. But we still loved them. Making a double batch next time to put half in the freezer for go-to lunches for my hubs. We loved them with spaghetti, too. Thanks for keeping the food spark alive in our house. 😉
My family loved this – even my picky two year old! This will be making it into the regular rotation for sure!
Used the meatball part of this receipe for meatballs and spaghetti sauce. My family loved them!! The word amazing was used by my picky eater child to decribe the taste. I did not cook the meatballs in the oven, just threw them in the crockpot with the sauce. Once again Mel you have helped me cook an outstanding dinner. My thanks to you!!
Could I make the meatballs and use them for spaghetti??
Sure!
I think I want to serve this for a family dinner coming up. How many people do you think this serves? I need to feed around 21 people….should I triple the recipe?
Heather – If there is a mix of kids and adults I think doubling or 2 1/2-ing the recipe should be plenty. All adults, I’d say tripling would be the safest bet. Under the recipe title it indicates the recipe makes between 7-9 sandwiches but they are pretty big and very filling.
Oh.em.gee!! These were amazing! Just as good, if not better, than Firehouse Subs meatball. Thank you for, yet again, for another great recipe to add to my rotation!
First let me say meatballs are gross, never had a meatball I liked and the thought of a meatball sandwich ewww. But I decided to make these because 4 out of 6 people in the house like meatballs. I can happily report there are now 6 meatball lovers in the house. These were so different than normal meatballs, the flavors were great. I didn’t have any parsley or pepper flakes on hand so I skipped them and they were not missed. I also used mozzarella cheese in them and topped them with swiss.
Kids are already asking for me to make them again.
Mel,
These meatballs are in the oven as I type. We LOVE all of your recipes and are excited to try something new tonight! Just wondering- planning on freezing some of the cooked meatballs for quick dinners other nights. Do you think I could freeze them in the leftover sauce? Wasn’t sure if they might let off any water when thawing, therefore making the sauce watery…? I’ll leave them separate when freezing if so, but if you think it could work to combine then freeze, I may try that.
Thanks again for your wonderful site!
Caroline – I would simplify and freeze them in the sauce. It might be a touch watery after thawing but after 10 or so minutes of simmering, it should thicken up nicely.
I didn’t think I was much of a meatball person but I have made this recipe a few times and think they are amazing. I actually just made some for a Super Bowl party and I made your French bread rolls into 24 smaller buns and put one meatball on each for little meatball sliders, they were a big hit at the party.
Hi Mel! What kind of bread crumbs work the best for the meatballs? Panko?
Jen – I’ve used everything from panko to homemade breadcrumbs to storebought. Panko or homemade are my preference.
I love love love this recipe! I’m planning on making them tomorrow for a party. I was thinking of putting the meatballs and sauce in the crockpot on low- do you think they would hold up or would they fall apart?
Hannah – I think that could work as long as they don’t sit in the crockpot too long (1-2 hours max, I’d say). Good luck!
Hi Mel,
I am brand new to your blog, somehow I just discovered it today (blasphemy!). I have already saved tons of recipes to try. I am a newlywed and am trying hard to find recipes my husband and I will both eat! I have never eaten a meatball sub before but these look too good to pass up. What kind of cheese do you recommend for this sub?
Hi Allyson – I usually use provolone for this sub.
These were great! They were my first attempt at making the bread and I’m so glad I did. I can never get yeast recipes to rise. These french rolls were my first success. I was so happy when I saw them rise I almost cried! I think next time I’ll do more sauce. We didn’t think they were saucy enough and could use a bit more spices but all in all, a winner!
Hi Mel,
your recipes are amazing! I will be making this tonight for my husband & 2 year old daughter. Can I just use french bread instead of making the french rolls ?
Jessica – sure! The meatballs just need a really good soft bread and you’ll be good to go.
I’ve never made meatballs before and I adore all your recipes! I’m looking forward to making these! I was hoping to sneak in some shredded carrots for the veggie factor. Any tips on how I should adjust the recipe to do this?
April – I would just shred them very finely and throw them into the meat mixture. Sounds like a great way to get in some veggies!
I made the meatballs and sauce tonight for dinner and everyone loved them. I have to say, it’s a great meatball recipe with the perfect amount of seasonings and heat (I added the pepper flakes). The only change I made to them was to add a bit of onion powder and I used oatmeal instead of the bread crumbs. Thank you for a delicious meal!
Hi Mel,I’m gonna try this for dinner but can you tell me what type of ground beef did you use?
Hi Sam – I usually use ground turkey for these but when I have ground beef, I use 90/10.
Can’t wait to try this! What is the purpose of putting the meatballs and sauce in a 9×13? Are they warmed up together? Is it only for mixing purposes? Could I just put the meatballs on the sub and top with sauce and skip the 9×13 step and have one less dish to clean?
Carlin – I do it that way to help the meatballs get smothered in sauce but it’s just a personal preference so you could tailor it to your liking and skip a dish.
These were divine!
Family loved these! Even my 14 year-old picky eater. He said they were better than Subway and this is a kid who has said when he grows up he wants a Subway in his house so he can get meatball subs 24/7.
As I was putting these together I was thinking “I’m never making these again!” Somehow it felt like a lot of work, even though I made the meatballs previously and just yanked them out of the freezer. However, when I took my first bite I said “I will definitely be making these again!” For once I had no complaints, not even from my picky 1st grader. We all loved these! Thanks!!!