I love digging through food magazines and looking for good recipes to try and experiment with. A bonus if it’s lower in calories and yet has an interesting flavour profile. I love it when they show me how to combine different herbs and spices to kick up the taste. This is how I stumbled upon this herbed turkey meatball subs recipe.
I made a few tweaks, and we had an amazing meal of meatball subs on weekday nights.
Herbed Turkey Meatball Subs
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
- 5 6-inch hoagie rolls
- 1 onion, halved and sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- Handful of fresh basil leaves
- 4-6 ounces of chopped pancetta
- 1 pound of ground turkey breast
- 1 large egg
- Pinch of dried oregano leaves, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 1 15-ounce can of tomato sauce
- Package of Sargento mozzarella slices
- Fresh parmesan, shaved
Instructions
- In a large nonstick skillet, toast the fennel seeds over medium heat. Transfer to a large bowl and set the skillet to the side.
- Using a food processor, pulse 1 hoagie roll into crumbs; add to the bowl.
- Chop up the onion (leave half of the onion in slices) and the garlic.
- In the skillet from before, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and one half of the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes; add to the bowl.
- Using the food processor, finely chop the basil; add the pancetta and pulse until chopped. Add the ground turkey breast, egg, oregano, pepper, and salt; mix.
- In the same skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the remaining sliced onions and cook until browned, about 7 minutes.
- Shape the meat mixture into 16 meatballs and add to the skillet. Add a little more olive oil to make sure nothing sticks.
- Stir in the tomato sauce, season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Cover with a lid and cook until the meatballs are firm for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Preheat the broiler. Partially split the hoagie rolls; arrange cut side up on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Broil until toasted. You may need to use oven-safe dishes to keep them propped up.
- Take the hoagie rolls out of the oven. Take one slice of cheese, tear it in half, and line the bottom of the hoagie roll with cheese.
- Top each roll with meatballs. Spoon some of the onion and tomato sauce over the meatballs. Take another slice of cheese, tear in half and add on top.
- Broil until the cheese is melted. Watch while your hoagie broils. You want the hoagie to have the cheese starts to brown, then pull it out of the oven. A broiler can quickly turn a delicious meatball sub into a burnt cheese meatball sub.
