Meatball sandwiches on homemade milk buns

A hearty and delicious comfort food meal!

While there are lots of shortcuts to making meatball sandwiches, I am here to tell you that purchased sauce, meatballs and buns are highly unlikely to ever be as delicious as homemade versions. Plus, you’ll miss out on the tremendous joy to be found by crafting a memorable meal from scratch – this is a recipe where your efforts will be amply rewarded by the taste of the final product. As the instructions below indicate, you can make some or all of the components of this meal ahead of time, to distribute the workload, or if you want to make just a few sandwiches (or even just one) at a time, a portion of all elements can all be frozen and used later. In addition to being perfect for these sandwiches, we also like this marinara sauce on our homemade pizzas or with hot cooked pasta. The milk buns are incredibly soft and flavourful, particularly when freshly baked, though they are still good the next day if cooled and stored in an airtight container after baking. You can follow the same recipe and shape them into a dozen round dinner rolls for other purposes, if you wish. For more flavourful meatballs I highly recommend medium ground beef rather than lean. While the sandwiches are great on their own, I like to serve them with a small dish of homemade coleslaw. If you enjoy this meal, you might also like my Turkish-inspired meatball sandwich recipe.

Ingredients

Milk buns:

2/3 cup (160 mL) milk, heated to lukewarm (100-110F)
4 teaspoons (17 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons (6 g) instant yeast
2 1/4– 2 1/2 (270-300 g) cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons (28 g) melted butter, divided

Marinara sauce:

1/4 cup (60 mL) olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon (14 g) tomato paste
1 (28-ounce or 794 g) can whole peeled Italian tomatoes (San Marzano or Roma)
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon (5 mL) maple syrup
Few pinches baking soda (to neutralize tomatoes’ natural acidity)
1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano (or more, to taste)

Meatballs:

1 lb (454 g) medium ground beef
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon (5 g) Dijon mustard
1 egg, beaten
Few dashes hot sauce
Few pinches each salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon each dried oregano and basil
1/4 (21 g) cup panko or other dried breadcrumbs

Garnishes:

1 cup (120 g) grated cheddar cheese
Sliced green onions

Method

Make the dough for the buns first as it will need time to rise. Warm the milk in a small pot or in the microwave, to just above lukewarm but not hot (105-110F). Stir yeast and sugar into the milk and set aside to activate.
Add 2 cups of the flour and the salt to a large mixing bowl (use a stand mixer if you have one). Once yeast mixture is frothy, add it to the bowl with the machine running (if using a stand mixer) or stir vigorously with a sturdy spoon. Add beaten egg and 1 tablespoon (14 g) of the melted butter and stir again.
Continue mixing, adding additional flour as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture has come together as a soft dough that does not stick to the sides of the bowl (about 4-5 minutes). If kneading by hand, transfer the mixture to a lightly floured work surface and knead, adding flour just as needed to keep it from sticking (about 7-8 minutes). The dough will be soft and slightly sticky when finished.
Gather the dough into a ball and transfer to a clean bowl that’s been lightly oiled with vegetable oil or butter. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel (or beeswax/plastic wrap) and let rise for one hour, until doubled in size. If your kitchen is cool you may need to preheat your oven to 170F for a few minutes then turn off the oven and put the bowl in there (or use the Proof feature if available).
Prepare the marina sauce while dough is rising. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly.
Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the canned tomatoes and break them up with the back of a spoon or a potato masher. Add a few pinches each of salt and pepper as well as the maple syrup and baking soda. Stir in the basil and oregano.
Bring sauce to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low or low, until the mixture is just simmering. Let sauce simmer uncovered for 15 minutes; it will thicken and reduce as it cooks. Taste and add more seasoning if you wish. Remove from heat and cover while you finish the meatballs and buns. If not using sauce immediately, it can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 6 months.
While marinara sauce is simmering, make the meatballs. Preheat oven to 350F and line a rimmed baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, shallot, garlic, Dijon, beaten egg, hot sauce, herbs, salt and pepper and breadcrumbs. Mix gently with your very clean hands, distributing seasonings, etc. evenly into the meat.
Form the mixture into eighteen uniformly sized meatballs (each slightly larger than 1 inch / 2.5 cm), taking care not to pack the meat too tightly as dense meatballs take longer to cook plus they aren’t be as tender. Place the shaped meatballs approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on the baking tray.
Refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake and serve. Frozen meatballs can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 months; this is useful if you only want to make a few sandwiches at a time.
I recommend baking the meatballs after you bake the milk buns so they are piping hot when added to the sandwiches.
By now the milk bun dough should have doubled; punch it down and remove from bowl. Pat down into a rectangle on a clean work surface and cut into six equal portions (each approximately 3.5 oz/100g). Shape the buns by flattening each piece of dough into a rectangle, then rolling it up into a cylinder with your hands, tucking edges in until the buns have a smooth, long oval shape.
NOTE: You can freeze some or all of the shaped milk buns for future baking – just place them on a parchment lined baking tray, not touching each other, and freeze until firm (about 2 hours) then transfer to an airtight container. When ready to bake, remove from freezer and follow the next step to have them complete their second rise; it will take several hours as they will need to thaw first.
Transfer shaped buns in a row to a parchment-lined baking dish that is about 1.5 times the size of the buns (I used a casserole dish that was 8×10 inches (20×25 cm). As before, cover the dough and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. Just before the second rise is finished, preheat the oven to 350F.
Bake buns for 18-20 minutes, until golden on top and internal temperature of dough in the centre of the pan measures 190F. Remove pan from oven and brush tops of buns with remaining melted butter.
Let milk buns cool while meatballs bake then carefully cut them open from the top, taking care to not cut all the way through.
To bake the meatballs, preheat oven to 350F (if not already warm from baking buns). Bake meatballs for about 20 minutes (longer if from frozen), or until they reach an internal temperature of 150F.
To assemble the sandwiches, reheat marinara for a few minutes if needed. Place a tablespoon or so of sauce inside each bun, spreading it along the bottom. Add 3 meatballs to each bun and top with about 1/3-1/2 cup (75-110 g) of the marinara sauce, spreading it across the meatballs. Sprinkle grated cheddar and green onions across the top and serve hot.