Meatball Sandwich in a Bowl

(This post may contain affiliate links.)

To celebrate getting home from work before 5:30, I decided to spend a little extra effort on dinner tonight.  I was in the mood for Italian but not pasta, so I decided meatball sandwiches sounded amazing but I wanted something a little more upscale.  After putting on some Pat Green (seemed like good music to cook to), I got out the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• About 20 French bread baguette slices
• 1/4 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil but any kind will work)
• Italian Seasoning (totally forgot that in the picture)
• 1 bag of frozen meatballs
• 1 bag of frozen bell peppers
• 1/3-1/2 onion (I use red onions because I have it in my head that they are sweeter.  Forgot this in the pic as well.  Wow, I’m more tired than I thought.)
• 1 can of tomato sauce (Any sauce you like is good.  I use this brand because they come in Mason jars and I am saving those right now to use as vases for my wedding.)
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

How to make it:

1. Get out a casserole dish or a pie pan.  Any pan that has some depth will work.  I foil line everything because I like easy clean up, but that is not a requirement.  I shouldn’t really worry about it anyway because my AH (amazing husband) always does the dishes when I cook.  He is great that way.
2. Sprinkle Italian seasoning in the oil and spread it on one side of the bread.
3. Line the bottom and sides of the casserole dish with the bread oil side up.  I overlap them so I can fit more.  I know…too much bread is not a good thing, but this is not one of my healthiest recipe just so you know.
4. Put the casserole dish with the bread in a 350 degree oven and let it cook for about 10ish minutes until the edges of the bread are brown and crispy.  Mine takes a little longer, but as you may have seen in the pics, I have a 1970’s green oven so while it works great, it isn’t always consistent.
5. At this point, if you were better than me, you could just pour the thawed meatballs, thawed peppers, onions, and tomato sauce into a bowl and mix them up.  Since I didn’t plan that far in advance, I had to do a little more work.
6. I sauteed the onion and frozen peppers in extra virgin olive oil (which makes the house smell AMAZING) and then poured in the frozen meatballs and browned them until they were thawed.
7. Pour the tomato sauce on top of the meatballs, onions, and peppers, and (the bread should be more than ready by this point) then pour the entire mixture over the bread in the casserole dish.  Mine did not all fit, but that may be because I used a smaller dish.
8. Put the entire dish of uncovered Italian goodness into the oven at 350 degrees for about 30ish minutes.
9. Pull it out of the oven, sprinkle it with mozzarella cheese, and put it back into the oven for about 10ish more minutes until the cheese is all bubbly.
10. Dish it out and enjoy.  Maybe you should put something green with it (salad, green beans, etc.) to make you feel healthier.  I have to admit that this is more food than my AH and I can eat, but I can always bring leftovers to school tomorrow.

*The only change I would make to this recipe is to maybe have some extra baguette pieces to dip in the sauce or something.  It could use a little more crunch but it is so amazingly yummy! 🙂