Meatball Sandwich with Melting Mozzarella Recipe

What’s a better way to begin using this cookbook than making a recipe which calls for melted cheese?  Hello, Meatball Sandwich with Melting Mozzarella Recipe!

I was recently lucky enough to be given Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking: Everything You Need to Know to Make Fabulous Food Cookbook.  Needless to say, I was very excited to start cooking.  

Meatball Sandwich with Melting Mozzarella Recipe

Ingredients

1 small onion, peeled and diced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Olive Oil

1 tsp Dried Chili Flakes

1 pound ground pork (Ramsay Uses Beef)

2/3 cup Seasoned Breadcrumbs

3 or 4 Tbsp Milk

Submarine Rolls, Your Favorite Buns, or Bread of Your choice

Pizza Mozzarella, Thinly sliced

Salt & Pepper to season

Salsa

2-3 Tomatoes, Chopped

1/2 Red Onion, Peeled and finely Chopped

1 Tsp White Wine Vinegar

Pinch of Sugar

Cilantro, chopped

Juice from 1/2 Lime (Optional but highly recommended)

Instructions

Make Meatballs

Sauté the onion and garlic in a hot oil frying pan for about 5 minutes, season with salt, and pepper.  Add the Chili Flakes after about two minutes.  In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs and milk.  Allow the milk to be absorbed into the breadcrumbs.  In a large bowl, add the beef, garlic & onion mixture, along with the breadcrumb mixture.  Season with salt & pepper; combine well.

Shape the mixture into balls.  Place them on a greased plate, or, the pan you used for sautéing the onion and garlic.  Allow them to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Make Salsa

In the meantime, combine all of the ingredients for the salsa in a bowl.  Be sure to stir well and taste! Add a bit more sugar if needed.

Cook Meatballs and Heat Bread

After the meatballs have chilled for 30 minutes, put a bit more oil in the frying pan.  Cook the meatballs over medium-low heat until colored on the outside and fully cooked throughout.  Set aside.  Prepare the bread by slicing it into halves.

Heat your broiler to medium.  Place the bread into the oven for a couple of minutes until they are golden brown.

Put it all together!

Remove from the oven and set the meatballs on the bread. You can either have sandwiches (in which case, you would only cover half of the bread slices).  Or, you can have open-faced sandwiches.  Simply cover each piece of bread with the meatballs.

When you place the meatballs on the bread, be sure to push them down into the bread a bit.  If there is any liquid leftover in the meatball frying pan, spoon it over the meatballs.

Slice your mozzarella and cover the meatballs with the slices.  Place them back in the oven under the broiler until the cheese has melted.

Remove from the oven and spoon the fresh salsa you made on top of the meatballs.

Serve while still warm and if there is any leftover salsa, serve it on the side.

Leftover Meal Idea

Have pork mixture leftover?  Here’s a delicious recipe you can make that takes only 20 minutes- Cheesy Stuffed Roasted Tomatoes with Bacon.