Slow Cooker Meatball Subs

Slow Cooker Meatball subs are great to serve for dinner or for parties. These sandwiches consist of garlic bread sub rolls loaded with Italian meatballs, sauce, and provolone cheese. You can cook the meatballs in the crockpot or even simmer them on the stove top right in the sauce. The meatballs get a lot of flavor from Italian breadcrumbs and garlic. For moist and tender meatballs, I recommend using a combination of meat such as ground beef and ground pork or pork, veal, and beef. You can probably find these blends in the grocery store. The sub rolls are brushed with a garlic butter sauce and then placed under the broiler until browned. You can save a little bit of time if you want to use pre-made sauce from the store. I like sweet marinara but making your own is so much better.

Slow Cooker Meatball Subs

Meatball subs in the crock pot.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 4 hrs

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

Meatballs-

• 1 pound ground beef or mixture of beef and pork
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup milk

Sauce-

• 1 (24 ounccan crushed tomatoes
• 1 (6 ounccan tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper to taste

Other-

• 4 small sub rolls
• 8 slices provolone cheese
• ¼ cup butter
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley

Instructions

 

• In the bottom of a slow cooker mix together crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
• In a large bowl mix all of the meatballs ingredients together. Form into meatballs that are about the size of golf balls. Place into the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until fully cooked.
• In a small bowl mix butter with garlic powder and dried parsley. Spread onto the cut sides of each sub roll. Lay the sub rolls open faced onto a baking sheet. Top each with 2 slices of provolone cheese. Place under the broiler in the oven until browned and the cheese has melted.
• Remove from the oven. Top each sub roll with meatballs and sauce and serve immediately.