Stuffed Meatball Subs

Something weird has been happening to my taste buds lately. They're changing. Why? I don't know but they are definitely different. I know this because my son has been eating a lot of my sandwiches lately. What does that have to do with my taste buds? I'll tell you. For some reason, every time I make a sandwich that I really think I want, I take one bite and it is NOT something I want. The whole taste makes me sick. Really. One day I made 3 different sandwiches, thinking I just didn't like that particular sandwich. Nope, I couldn't stomach any of them. So the boy ate them. ALL of them. He's 12, eats anything that isn't nailed down and still only weighs 155 lbs. I really dislike his ability to do that. But I digress. The point is that previously loved sandwiches make me ill now so I have to find something else to fill that midday meal requirement.

Enter...The stuffed sub. Oh yeah, baby. This sandwich rocks! But it is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for those who only eat like birds. No, this is a MAN sandwich. Except us girls loved it too!

Okay, this first thing I did was mix up a batch of my french bread dough. I let it do its first rise. While it was rising, I took Pioneer Woman's Comfort Meatballs out of the fridge (I had defrosted them the other day and needed to use them up). I stuck them in a large ziplock with a little flour, shook em up and dumped them into a hot skillet to cook em up a bit. I cooked them a little more through for this recipe than I do when I follow Pioneer Woman's recipe because these won't cook in the oven as long. So once I got the meatballs all done, I took my bread dough, punched it down and divided it into 4 pieces simply because I was feeding 4 people. Each piece made about a foot long sub. I took a piece of dough and rolled it out into a flat rectangle. I then took some sauce (a can of tomato sauce, a small can of tomato paste and a can of diced tomatoes simmered for a little while with whatever spices you have handy)and spooned it on to the dough right down the center. I didn't use a ton, probably a bit less than 1/4 cup. Then I took a 4th of the meatballs and put them over the sauce and put a hardy sprinkling of shredded mozzarella over that. Then I pulled the dough up over the cheese and pinched the seams together and put it on a  parchment lined baking sheet, seam side down. I baked them at 350 for about 25 minutes, just until the dough was nice and browned. I served them with the left over sauce so we could do some dippin' and, man o man, they were sensational!

I'm getting hungry just looking at this picture!

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