I went through a year when I was in school where I ordered a meatball sub at least once a week. I’d pack it with all the fixings (because as a student, I had to get my veggies somehow, right!?), and I’d enjoy the glorious combination of cheese, sauce and meatballs. We don’t go out for subs very often anymore, but if we do, even now, I’ll still order a meatball sub. I love that these meatball sub bites have all those great flavours! They make an awesome appetizer, snack or even a simple lunch. (Because if I can eat something that is NOT a sandwich at lunch, I’m way happier!) These take less than half an hour to make and when they come out of the oven the melted cheese is amazing. Cheese… Mmmmm…
You can use your favourite frozen meat balls or make them fresh – it’s totally up to you! If you use frozen meatballs, you don’t even have to defrost them because they cook up perfectly in the oven even if they’re frozen. I love when I can use frozen food without defrosting – It makes life sooooo much easier! This is a variation of my recipe for Deep Dish Mini Pizzas – but it’s been done lots of times from what I can see on Pinterest. You can see a couple other variations over at Plain Chicken and Bread With a Side of Butter. And I can see why! These meatball sub bites are crazy simple to make and they taste amazing!
How to Make Meatball Sub Bites
The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
Frozen meatballs Mozzarella Cheese Pasta Sauce Crescent Roll Dough
Only four simple ingredients! I used my favourite marinara pasta sauce – I find smooth sauces work better than chunky. You could even use pizza sauce if that’s what you have in the cupboard.
Unroll the crescent roll dough and cut it into 12 equal pieces, as shown in the photo below. I couldn’t get the pieces to be perfectly square, but it doesn’t really matter.
Place each of the rectangles of crescent roll dough into a regular sized muffin tin. Reshape them a bit so they cover the whole bottom, and come up the sides a little bit. I sprayed my muffin tin generously with cooking spray first and the meatball sub bites came out really easily.
Next add a little bit of the pasta sauce – just enough to cover the bottom. I used about 1 teaspoon, but you really don’t have to measure it.
Sprinkle a little bit of grated mozzarella cheese on top of the pasta sauce. Then place a frozen meatball in the middle.
Add another small spoonful of pasta sauce, then sprinkle with a little more mozzarella cheese.
Bake the meatball sub bites at 375F for about 15 minutes until the cheese is completely melted and the edges turn golden brown.
When they’re fresh out of the oven, each bite is packed with delicious melted cheese! You know those deliciously awesome stretchy strings of cheese when you pull it apart? Mmmm…
You can eat them as they are, or dip them in the marinara sauce. Whatever you like best!
These meatball sub bites are sooooo good and they’re crazy simple to make! They’d make an awesome appetizer (superbowl maybe?), or even just a different and fun lunch to switch things up a bit. I’m all about non-sandwich lunches and these taste amazing! This is a simple snack idea that you can make in less than 30 minutes with only 4 ingredients! For another fun and easy appetizer, check out our recipe for Deep Dish Mini Pizzas. They are just like the recipe above, except they use pepperoni instead of meatballs.
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