How to Make Italian Meatball Sliders

I have been on a meatball kick lately. Meatballs are one of my new favorite type of foods. You can make a big batch and freeze whatever you don't eat and warm them up latter. Throw a marinara or mushroom sauce and you have a different meal. I have for been doing that for the past week meatballs, noodles, and different sauce repeat. Well you may have guessed I am getting tired of noodles. That is when it hit me... meatball sliders! They would freeze up just as well and could also take different sauces. By now your mouth might be watering so let's make some Italian meatball sliders.

This recipe will will make about 22 2" (5cm) round sliders. You can freeze the extras or if you are having a big party you will be set.

Plant matter

• 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley (15g)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 3 cloves garlic

Dry goods

• 3/4 cup bread crumbs (70g)
• 1/2 cup flour (62.5g)

Animal Products

• 1 1/3 lbs. ground beef (603g)
• 4 mild Italian sausages (about 1lbs. 450g)
• 2 large white egg's
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (44g)*

Wet Goods

• Marinara sauce (how much you need depends on how many sliders you are going to eat at the time)*
• 6 Tbsp of Olive oil (15ml)*
• Slider Buns (I made my own you could also use dinner rolls)

Tools

• Medium Mixing bowl
• Glass pan*
• Cutting board*
• Small bowl
• Various measuring cups
• Sauce pan*
• Spoon*
• Spatula
• Stove
• Oven
• Medium frying pan
• Knife

*not pictured

First lets change those lovely whole veggies into chopped up ones. First finely dice the onion and garlic. Then roughly chop the parsley and set it aside we will be using it later.

Heat up 2 Tbsp(5 ml) of olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Once the oil is good and warm dump your diced onions and garlic in. Cook the onions and garlic until clarified and a bit brown. Make sure to stir frequently to keep them from burning. You can refer to the above pictures to see the difference between the raw and the cooked onions.

Using a sharp knife and being careful not to cut yourself cut the casing on the sausages. Once you have cut the casing down the length of the sausages peel the casing off the sausages and add them to a bowl with the ground beef. After you have all the meat in a bowl add the chopped parsley, bread crumbs, eggs, Parmesan cheese, onions, and garlic into the bowl. Make sure to save your flower for later.

It is time to channel your inner B-movie zombie and squish it all together with your hands. Really dig in there and mix it all up so everything is evenly distributed. Once everything is evenly mixed make small balls about the size of a golf ball. Then pat the ball into a patty. Dredge the patty in your flour bowl to evenly coat it with flour and set it aside. Repeat until you have nothing left to make patties with. I ended up with 22 roughly 2"(5cm) wide patties. It is okay for them to be thick we will be finishing them off in the oven.*

*This is a great point to start preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 Celsius)

Place a pan over high temp on your stove and pour 4 Tbsp of olive oil to the pan. Heat the oil till it is shimmery. Once it starts to shimmer it is time to add the patties.(My pan fit 5 patties at a time.) Cook the patties for about a minute on each side or until they are a nice golden brown. Once the patties are browned move them over to a glass baking pan and start the next batch. Don't worry about not stacking them up in the pan. When you transfer the final batch of patties over to your pan it is time to put them in the oven. Place your patty pan on the middle rack of your oven and start your timer for 25 minutes. (click here for a timer in a new tab) I did some cleaning up from the previous steps at this point while I waited for my timer to beep at me. Once the timer goes off take the patties out of the oven and get ready for a tough choice.

We have come so far and in front of us now lays a mighty delicious pile of meatball patties. Now you must look into your heart/stomach and decide how many sliders do you want. My gut answered with a resounding "all of them" and then my heart chimed in with "Four please." I went with my heart. Place how many patties you want in a sauce pan and add just enough marinara sauce to cover them most of the way and heat the sauce up. Once the sauce is bubbling turn off your stove the time has come for plating your sliders. Place one patty per bun with a dollop of sauce and a dusting of Parmesan cheese. Then place the top of the bun on the sliders and garnish the plate however you see fit.

That is it. You are done! Enjoy your sliders. Thank you for taking the time to read this Instructable. If you make these please post a picture in the comments and let me know how they came out. Enjoy your sliders.