Meatball Sub
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Create the best Italian Meatball Sub at home with this easy, tested and perfected recipe! In this epic sub sandwich, a warm, crusty roll is filled with juicy, tender meatballs, flavorful marinara sauce, and plenty of melty cheese. It truly is the best sandwich ever, and super easy to make with leftover Italian meatballs!
Two of my husband’s favorite foods are meatballs and sandwiches. He grew up on the East Coast where you could get a good meatball sub at dozens of spots around town. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to find a meatball sub in San Diego that’s knocked our socks off. And trust me, we’ve tried a lot!
So I made it my mission to make the most epic meatball sub at home. It wasn’t too hard, since I started with my famous Italian meatballs, which are already so juicy and delicious, but then it came down to the bread. No one likes soggy bread, this is why I use a baguette for the subs, instead of a traditional sub or hoagie roll.
A toasty baguette is the perfect bread for a meatball sub. I used two demi baguettes, which is a baguette that’s half of it’s normal size, but you could also use one traditional baguette and cut it into four sandwiches. If you’ve never tried a meatball sub on a baguette, this is your sign to try it!
For the sauce, we use either my homemade marinara sauce or Rao’s marinara sauce (our favorite store brand sauce in a jar). Using marinara sauce, instead of just plain tomato sauce, adds so much more flavor to the sub sandwich. And of course, no meatball sub is complete without cheese, so I doubled down on the mozzarella and added parmesan cheese.
This meatball sub is truly epic and a recipe that you’ll want to make over and over again!
Ingredients
- Meatballs – for this recipe, you’ll want fully cooked meatballs. You can use my recipe for air fryer meatballs to cook frozen meatballs in just 10 minutes. You can also make my homemade Italian meatballs from scratch in under 30 minutes. (Highly recommended!) They’re easy to make with a combination of ground beef and Italian pork sausage, and they’re so juicy and flavorful!
- Baguette – I highly recommend trying a baguette for the bread of the sandwich. It toasts up to be a wonderfully crispy roll to wrap around the saucy meatballs. Use either two demi baguettes, or one whole baguette.
- Marinara sauce – I recommend using either homemade marinara sauce or Rao’s marinara sauce (my favorite store brand sauce in a jar). You can also use a jar of pizza sauce.
- Mozzarella cheese – for this recipe, you’ll want 8 slices of mozzarella. We’ll melt some in the bread, then add more on top of the meatballs.
- Parmesan cheese – around our house we call grated parmesan cheese “Italian salt”. It’s the perfect way to finish these meatball subs.
- Fresh basil leaves (optional) – if you’d like to add a fresh flavor and pop of color to the sandwiches, add a couple of fresh basil leaves in the sandwich at the end before serving.
Instructions
I’ve included step by step photos below to make this recipe super easy to follow at home. For the full detailed recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
If you’re making my homemade meatballs from scratch, you’ll want to start this recipe by preparing and cooking the meatballs. They only take 27 minutes to make start-to-finish, and are so delicious!
- Preheat the oven broiler to high.
- Pour 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet on the stove over medium high heat.
- Add 1 cup of diced onions and cook for 4-5 minutes. Add 4 minced garlic cloves and cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine 1 pound ground beef, 1 pound ground pork Italian sausage, ½ cup panko bread crumbs, ½ cup parmesan cheese, 2 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper.
- Add the cooked onions and garlic, then use your hands, or a spatula, to combine all of the ingredients. Once the ingredients are combined, form the mixture into about 40 golf ball sized meatballs.
- Place the meatballs on a foil lined baking sheet and under the broiler in the oven for 5-7 minutes.
- Simmer meatballs in sauce. Add cooked meatballs to a large saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat. Pour marinara sauce over the meatballs and simmer in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Melt cheese in the baguette. Preheat an oven to 450°F. Slice the baguettes in half lengthwise through the middle. Top the bottom half of each baguette with two slices of mozzarella cheese, cut in half lengthwise, and overlapping on the bread. Place the top half of the baguette on top of the cheese. Place in the oven for 5 minutes. This will allow the cheese to melt and the bread to crisp up.
- Add the saucy meatballs. Remove the baguettes from the oven, remove the top half of the bread, then add 6 meatballs tossed in marinara sauce to each demi baguette (or add all of them to a whole baguette).
- Top with more cheese. Top each of the sandwiches with another two slices of mozzarella cheese, cut in half lengthwise, and overlapping on top of the meatballs. Place the sandwich back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted over the meatballs.
- Finish with more cheese. Remove the meatball subs from the oven, partially remove the top piece of bread, sprinkle the meatballs with parmesan cheese, and add basil leaves if you’d like. Slice both in half, so you end up with four sandwiches for serving.
Recipe notes
- This meatball sub sandwich is best served hot and fresh out of the oven. You can store leftover saucy meatballs in the fridge for up to 5 days and make a fresh sandwich whenever you’re ready for another one!
- You can also make this recipe with slow cooker meatballs in marinara sauce. Toss them in the slow cooker in the morning, then come home and make these delicious sub sandwiches for dinner!
- If you love the flavor of basil, spread some basil pesto on the bottom half of the bread, before melting the mozzarella cheese in the middle.
- For another tasty addition, place slices of roasted red peppers on the sandwich, before adding the meatballs on top.
Sides to serve with it
The meatball sub is a delicious meal by itself, but you can also pair it with a fresh salad, for a classic salad and sandwich combo!
More sandwich recipes
Don’t miss these other epic sandwich recipes!
Meatball Sub
Ingredients
- 2 demi baguettes, or one whole baguette
- 8 slices mozzarella cheese
- 12 cooked meatballs
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- ¼ cup basil leaves, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Add the cooked meatballs and marinara sauce to a large saucepan on the stove and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Slice the demi baguettes in half lengthwise through the middle. Top the bottom half of each baguette with two slices of mozzarella cheese, cut in half lengthwise, and overlapping on the bread. Place the top half of the baguette on top of the cheese. Place in the oven for 5 minutes.
- Remove the baguettes from the oven, remove the top half of the bread, then add 6 meatballs tossed in marinara sauce to each demi baguette (or add all of them to a whole baguette).
- Top each of the sandwiches with another two slices of mozzarella cheese, cut in half lengthwise, and overlapping on top of the meatballs. Place the sandwich back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted over the meatballs.
- Remove the meatball subs from the oven, partially remove the top piece of bread, sprinkle the meatballs with parmesan cheese, and add basil leaves if you’d like. Slice both in half, so you end up with four sandwiches for serving.
Notes
- Refer to the blog post above for my easy homemade Italian meatball recipe. You can also use frozen meatballs, just make sure they’re fully cooked before starting this recipe.
- This meatball sub sandwich is best served hot and fresh out of the oven. You can store leftover saucy meatballs in the fridge for up to 5 days and make a fresh sandwich whenever you’re ready for another one!
Nutrition Facts
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