Meatball Sub Skillet
Meatballs, marinara, and torn buns cooked down in one pan at the truck.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Precooked Italian-style meatballs | 1 lb | frozen or refrigerated, thawed in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Marinara sauce | 3 cups | jarred, or a shelf-stable pouch |
| Onion | 1 medium | chopped at home |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Slider buns | 12 | torn in half |
| Mozzarella | 8 slices | low-moisture, block or sliced |
| Butter | 2 tbsp | |
| Grated parmesan | 1 tbsp | the shelf-stable green-can kind |
| Italian seasoning | 1/4 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Set a skillet over the grate or a low flame. Oil in, onion in, cook two or three minutes until it goes soft.
- Add the meatballs and the marinara. Stir to coat, cover, and let it simmer about 15 minutes. Stir now and then so the bottom does not scorch.
- Cut the meatballs roughly in half with the edge of your spoon and stir them back through the sauce.
- Tear the buns into rough chunks and press them into the sauce so they sit half-submerged.
- Lay the mozzarella over the top, dot with the butter, then dust with parmesan, Italian seasoning, and pepper flakes.
- Cover for five minutes off direct heat until the cheese slumps. Eat straight from the pan.
The original is a tray of assembled sliders baked in an oven. Camp does not have an oven, so the sandwich gets deconstructed: same meatballs, same sauce, same cheese and butter and parmesan on top, but the buns go into the pan instead of under it. Torn bread soaks up sauce that would otherwise sit in the bottom of the skillet, and the lid does the work the oven used to.
Halving the meatballs matters more than it sounds. Whole ones roll around and stay cool in the middle; cut open, they take on sauce and heat through in the time you have. The butter and parmesan are not garnish either — they are what keeps the top from tasting like plain wet bread.
Packing
Meatballs, cheese, and butter live in the cooler. Buns ride on top of the food bin or they arrive as crumbs. Chop the onion at home and bag it. Decant sauce into a screw-top bottle if the jar makes you nervous.
Variations
- No cooler: swap shelf-stable meatballs in sauce for the frozen kind and skip the mozzarella. It becomes a sauce-and-bread skillet, still worth eating.
- Dutch oven with coals on the lid browns the top instead of just melting it.
- A splash of water in the sauce keeps it loose if the fire runs hot.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/italian-meatball-sliders