Eat, Drink, and Go!

Most of my cooking is on the healthier side, but I splurged last night on a kicked up meatball sub because I had leftover ground bison and just couldn’t resist!! I bought some big crusty sub rolls (the carb loaded part of this meal that I usually omit) and went to town on them.

I had about a third pound of ground bison left from grilled bison burgers the other night and needed to add just a little more oomph to make enough big meatballs for two subs. So I chopped up some baby portobello mushrooms with some diced onions and sautéed them in truffle oil and some truffle seasoning.

Let them cook down a bit, then added some red wine to soak in and really make them a rich and delish addition to the balls.

I let the wine soak in and reduce so the shrooms were not longer liquidy, then added to the ground bison and mixed it up with a little bit of bisquick and egg white to keep them together and formed it all into balls. I placed the balls into the sautéed pan in a little EVOO and browned on all sides.

Definitely not perfectly shaped balls here, but still gonna be delicious!! I reduced the heat and added in tomato sauce and red wine, not a ton, but enough to roll the balls around in and to make the sub nice and messy!!

I covered and let simmer for a bit while getting the fixings ready. I lightly toasted the rolls first with a little pesto flavored olive oil so the toppings wouldn’t soak in too fast and make the bread soggy.

I prepped the toppings of basil, tomatoes (from the garden!), bell peppers, and black olives. And of course some fresh mozzarella!

Once the bread was toasty and the balls were nicely simmered and saucy, I assembled the subs.

I popped them back in the oven to melt the cheese and toast up everything together.

Just about 7-8 minutes at 375 gets it perfectly melty for the cheese and crusty for the bread. And voila!! Delicious and lovely bison meatball subs!!

I could’ve paired with it the red wine I was using in the sauce, which the hubs went with, but I decided to go with my favorite stout beer, Dragon’s Milk by New Holland Brewery.

Yum yum yum!!! And this is so easily replicable with any ground meat – turkey, beef, any combo – and your favorite Italian sub toppings!!