Turkey Meatball Hoagies

Turkey Meatball Heroes

1 (10 oz) box frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave for 3 to 4 minutes on high
2 lbs ground turkey breast
1 small onion, grated or finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 1/3 cups milk
4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp butter
2 rounded Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 crusty hero rolls
1 (10 oz) sack shredded Provolone cheese, 2 cups

1. Preheat the oven to 425º. Wring the spinach dry in a clean kitchen towel
2. Place the turkey in a bowl and make a well in the center. Into the well, add the grated onion and garlic, egg, bread crumbs, Parmigiano, about 1/3 cup of the milk, the spinach, salt, and pepper. Form into 16 large balls, and arrange on a nonstick baking sheet. Drizzle the meatballs with about 4 Tbsp of the olive oil, and roast for 12 to 15 minutes, or until cooked through.
3. While meatballs are in the oven, heat the butter in a small saucepot over medium heat. When melted, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then whisk in the remaining 2 cups milk and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, a minute or two. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and turn the heat dowm to low.
4. Split the hero rolls in half lengthwise and scoop out a little bit of the soft bread so there is more room for the meatballs and sauce. Transfer to a baking sheet and toast in the oven cut side up, until golden brown.
5. Place 4 meatballs on each toasted roll and top with some of the white sauce and the Provolone cheese. Place back in the oven or under the broiler to melt the cheese.

My husband loves meatball sandwiches. His favorite versions normally involve marinara sauce but when I found this recipe in Rachael Ray's Just in Time, I thought it might be a fun alternative. Also I found some ground turkey breast on sale this week; score!

The ingredients (minus salt, pepper, and the extra-virgin olive oil which I forgot to set out):


Ms. Ray calls for defrosted frozen spinach in this recipe but I thought that since I already had fresh spinach around for a recipe later in the week, I could just use that. To get it meatball-ready, I steamed it. It was one of the first times I've used my steamer set that came with my pots and pans. Once again, hooray for kitchen gadgetry!

I've made this recipe before and it makes a ton. I decided to half the recipe and work from there. The only problem with this plan is that it calls for 1 egg and an egg is pretty hard to cut in half. I decided to beat the egg and just use my best guess at half of it.

When the spinach was cooked, I made sure to press out with a spoon as much of the excess water as I could. It probably wasn't as effective as the kitchen towel route that is given in the recipe but it's not as messy either.

Here is the meatball concoction right before I mixed it up. As all of the good cooks I know mix meatloaf or meatballs with their hands, I do too. I heard a crazy story about someone who tries to do it only with spoons but that sounds like a lot of needless work to me.

Here are the meatballs right before I stuck them in the oven. You will notice that even though I halved the recipe, I still have 16 meatballs. I can't find hero rolls at any of the grocery stores in my area so I just buy hoagies instead. It makes for a much smaller and more managable sandwich. You will also notice the large amounts of oil on these meatballs. You're supposed to drizzle these with 4 Tbsp of olive oil (which would be 2 Tbsp when cut in half). The original recipe also includes a red onion salad which I omit but I forgot about that and ended up using the oil meant for the salad to drizzle over the meatballs. That means I used just under double the oil I should have. Oops!

Here are the cooked meatballs. The recipe says it should take 12 to 15 minutes for the large meatballs; I cooked these smaller versions for right around 10 minutes and they came out nicely.

The sauce for this is really just your basic white sauce with a little nutmeg mixed in. I would never have thought of nutmeg on my own but the flavor combination is very interesting and fun.

My husband always thinks it's hilarious that I scoop out some of the bread out of the rolls. I'm sure you could skip this step and it wouldn't make a huge difference but I think it's kind of fun.

Mmmm... toasty rolls all ready for fixings.

I only use 3 meatballs per sandwich because that's what will fit on my rolls.

The white sauce is what makes this sandwich so moist but I've found that it you try to put too much on (mostly if it's running all over the pan instead of just sitting on your sandwich), it will just make your roll all soggy.

I can't find shredded Provolone cheese at our grocery store so I just use a couple slices per sandwich instead.

The finished product: this is one delicious sandwich. It's moist and a little messy and incredibly satisfying. This is one of the few meals my husband can consistently eat faster than me. Even my daughter liked the meatballs and ate the spinach inside without question. The meatballs were a great consistency and very flavorful with the cheese, spinach and garlic. That combination with the melted cheese really was delightful. The white sauce was really wonderful but since you can only get so much to rest on your sandwich, I served it with a dish of sauce for dipping. I think that was a good move and will definitely do that again the next time I serve these.