Turkey Meatball Sub

Today, after milking the cow (I live on a small farm) I made fresh mozzarella ...yummm. But what should I use it on? Something Italian obviously. I know! How about a meatball sub. Yeah, that sounds gooood.

After recently reentering the realm of carnivorous eating, my meat eating tendencies lean toward poultry much more that red meat. Trouble is, when making meatballs, turkey meat can be slightly lacking in the flavor department. The following is my attempt to give flavor to the flavorless. I think it worked!

Meatball Ingredients:

1 pound Ground Turkey
2 Chicken or Turkey Sausages uncooked removed from casing
2 cups Sourdough crust removed and cut into pieces
3/4 cups Milk
1 Egg
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
South African Smoke Seasoning Blend *see picture 
1/4tsp Ground Sage
1/2 tsp each Dried Marjoram, Dried Rosemary
1 tsp Dried Basil
1/3 c Fresh Basil chopped
4 cloves Garlic minced
1/3 cup grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Cube the Bread

Soak it in the Milk

Put the Meat in a bowl along with Salt, Smoke Blend, Sage, Marjoram, Rosemary, Dried Basil, Fresh Basil and Garlic. Combine so that spices are evenly distributed.

This is my new favorite spice blend... it comes from Trader Joe's. It's one of those things that's good on everything... scrambled eggs, popcorn, you name it! In this case it adds great dimension to the Meatballs. It comes in it's own pepper style grinder.
 I must have added about 50 or so turns of the grinder to the meat mixture. If you can't get you hands on this, just throw in some (1/4 tsp?) smoked paprika.  

Next, squeeze the Milk out of the Bread and put it in the bowl with the Meat.(Don't mix yet) Lightly whisk the Egg and Soy Sauce together and add it to the bowl. Add the Cheese and mix everything together GENTLY The trick to tender meatballs of any kind, is not to over mix when incorporating the bread. I use my hands to do this in a gentle folding action.

Form into balls and drop into boiling water  for about 5 minutes or until they float. Doing this before browning them will insure that your meatballs hold their shape

Drain the water. Add a bit of olive oil and brown the meatballs slightly.

 

Add Tomato sauce to the pot. Thoroughly coat the Meatballs and let them cook in the sauce for a few minutes. Now your ready to assemble the Sub.

Take your favorite roll, rub with garlic, drizzle with olive oil and toast as if you were making Garlic bread. Assemble in this order: Bread; thick slice of fresh mozzarella; sauce; meatballs; slice of provolone. Put in the oven to get it all melty. Bon Apatite!