My husband lived in Brooklyn, New York for many years and he is quite fond of Italian food. I really made this to remind him of home and it was a nice change from the usual pizza and pasta recipes. He really enjoyed it but next time maybe I will try it with mini chicken meatballs as it is much healthier than the beef sausage. It is a cost effective way of feeding a lot of people and is the epitome of comfort food. You can make everything in advance and put it together when you want to eat it and it makes a lot of meatballs so there is plenty of leftovers. Stay tuned for my next post to see what I did with mine!

Mini Italian Meatball Subs

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of dhania beef or spicy sausage (see tips)
• 1 French loaf
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp xylitol/sugar/sweetener
• Mozzarella cheese for topping
• basil pesto for serving
• olive oil

Method:

1. Squeeze the meat from the sausage out of the casing, and drop into a hot frying pan.
2. Brown the mini meatballs all over then add the tin of tomatoes. If there are big chucks of tomato break them up with your spoon and add a little bit of water.
3. Add all the spices and sugar and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Take off the stove and leave aside while you prepare the bread (Pre-heat your oven if you want to eat immediately).
5. Cut the French loaf into four equal pieces, then cut down the middle of each one so it opens like a book.
6. Spoon the meatball mixture into each one, top with grated cheese and sprinkle some origanum on the top.
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven until the cheese has melted. Spoon basil pesto over the top and serve with a side salad.

Tips:

You can use any type of meat or sausage. If you have time to make mini chicken meatballs just mince 2 chicken breasts, season them and drop spoonfuls into a hot pan. The sugar/sweetener is added because tinned tomato can be quite acidic and I find when making an Italian tomato sauce it helps to balance out the flavor. Add more spices and herbs if you wish, the best part of recipes is the interpretation.

If you want to butter your French loaf or drizzle some olive oil to prevent the bread from drying out do so, if you want to take your sub to the next level melt some garlic and parsley butter and brush over the bread before you toast it.