Baked Meatball Subs

Baked meatball subs are loaded with melted cheese, savory pasta sauce, and tender meatballs overflowing from a perfectly warm hoagie roll.

You can make meatball subs from scratch, but you can also easily make baked meatball subs with ready-made ingredients. I am going to show you how you can make either, so your hot and melty sub can be prepared with as much, or as little effort as you care to put into it.

Baked Meatball Subs

Baked meatball subs can easily be made with some fresh hoagie rolls, frozen meatballs, jarred pasta sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese. It can be an effortless dinner, which let's be honest, sometimes we need. However, if you want to put your own finishing touches on it, you will be rewarded by putting in the little extra effort required to craft your own meatballs and sauce.

Best meatballs for subs

Frozen Italian meatballs from the grocery store will work just fine for this recipe. They just need to be heated with the pasta sauce and added to the sub. However, you can make great meatballs from scratch by following my recipe here. These are certainly the best meatballs to use in a meatball sub. The recipe will yield two pounds of meatballs, for which you would need 8 sub rolls to go with it.

What pasta sauce do I need?

A 24-ounce jar of your favorite pasta sauce will work just fine with this recipe. However, I believe marinara is the best option. Alternatively, you can make your own pasta sauce which gives you even greater flexibility over the flavors. My pasta sauce recipe is well suited to work with these baked meatball subs.

Best sub roll

Personally, I like hoagie rolls the best for baked meatball subs. Although any small sub roll will work fine. You could even use a brat bun if that was available. Other than freshness, the most important consideration is the roll be large enough to stuff with meatballs. A wimpy little hotdog bun will quickly be overwhelmed, not to mention, get soggy quickly from the pasta sauce.

How to bake meatball subs

You have a couple of options when baking meatball subs. You can bake them uncovered on a baking sheet, or you can cover them tightly in foil. I have tested them both ways. Baking them uncovered works, but the rolls will get too crispy, in my opinion. Covering them in foil traps heat inside so the cheese melts nicely, while also heating the buns, but without baking them to a crisp. Covering in foil and baking them in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes is the clear winner.

More meatball recipes

• Buffalo Chicken Meatballs - Tender chicken meatballs slathered in a spicy buffalo sauce.
• Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs - A true classic!
• Meatballs with Grape Jelly and Chili Sauce - A crazy combination that really works!
• Meatballs and gravy - This is comfort food at its finest.