Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

1/2 cup bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup pecorino cheese

1/2 cup fresh chopped parsley

1 to 2 tbsp black pepper

2 to 4 tbsp salt

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Marinara Sauce:

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 can Crushed Tomatoes

2 Tbsp. Tomato Paste

3 Garlic Cloves Chopped

1/2 a white Onion Chopped

Fresh Basil 3 to 4 Leaves

2 Bay Leaves

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. salt

1 cup of red wine (optional) - I like to use Merlot

Bread:

any hardy bread- I use a Ciabatta Baguette

Cheese:

Mozzarella in traditional but I used Swiss cheese and it is really good

Meatballs: In a large bowl add ground beef, pork, bread crumbs, eggs, parmesan cheese, pecorino cheese, chopped parsley, black pepper, salt and olive oil. Mix all the ingredients with your hands well. This usually takes me about 5 to 10 minutes of mixing to get it really mixed well. Next, roll meat between your hands to form perfectly sized balls, I like them to be the size of a peach or plum. Grab get a baking pan or cupcake type pan and line with parchment paper or spray well if oil and place meatballs onto pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 450°F (or 232.2°C for my outside the US friends),place meatball tray in oven and cook for 5 minutes rotating the meatballs midway and as needed until meatballs to be slightly browned all the way around. Once the balls are seared, remove them from the oven and set aside. these meatballs are cooked to almost finished and it will finish cooking in the sauce.

Marinara Sauce: In a sauce pot, add the olive oil and heat it up. Once hot, add the chopped onions and garlic. Sauté onions and garlic until fragrant and then add tomato paste, basil and bay leaves. Stir continually until the tomato paste is cooked (Note: you can tell when its cooked when the paste has coated all the ingredients). Add a cup of wine (optional) to your sauce, mix until it has become like a sauce consistency. lastly, add the crushed tomato. Stir occasionally and let it reduce. Once reduced, add a little sugar, salt and parmesan cheese. Mix well ass more salt to taste and now the sauce is ready for the meatballs.

Now that the sauce is ready, add the meatballs into the sauce to finish cooking. You can cover the sauce and meatballs to speed up the process but be sure you move the meatballs around when stirring to get the flavor and moisture all around the balls. Cook meatballs in sauce until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F or 73.8°C.

To keep the bread from getting soggy, before adding the sauce and meatballs melt cheese onto the bottom piece of the bread and let it cool then proceed to build the sub. It wont keep it from getting soggy for ever but it will certainly help preserve it for a while longer than usual.