Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Season Finale – Meatball Sub on a Freshly Made Roll. You kidding Me over here?

Holy shit everyone, we made it.

Seven. Fucking. Months later and we’ve officially put a bow on season SEVEN of Sunday Gravy.

This shit is equal parts love and equal parts goddamn pain in the ass but it’s the love that ultimately holds truest. Plus I just really love to fucking cook. I also enjoy trying new dishes, cuisines and flavor combinations. 

Now am I gonna just kick back, consume copious cold, frosty, barley flavored beverages and just watch some goddamn FOOTBALL for the next several months?

Fucking-A affirmative I am!

When preparing the Sunday Gravy season finale I generally reflect back on some of the dishes that really stood out during the past 7 months. I have a thorough review of the various sandwiches made this past season below. We did however make more than just sandwiches this season.

I’ll break the awards down into a couple of categories.

“Best Chicken Dish” goes to:

Chicken with red pepper, lemon, honey and feta!

Great godamighty this was fucking special.

If you haven’t yet given this a go I hope you get a chance to in the upcoming months. Super easy, just a handful of ingredients and righteous as a motherfucker.

Runners up for the chicken title would be our…

Chicken Paprikash! Made extra special because we made homemade egg noodles and homemade bread.

Then we also had our…

Chicken Piccata!

Great googly moogly. Simple ingredients, simple prep and just a fucking dazzling dish.

Very honorable mention to our…

Oven Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy!

So fucking delicious and just filled with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia that almost caused me to break down in fucking tears eating it.

Next award is for “Sexiest Motherfucking Banner Image Award!”

Simple. That’s this one.

Cast Iron seared ribeye with simple pan sauce.

Oh my!

Next award is for “Dish That Became an Obsession!”

Soondubu!

So goddamn delicious that I had to go back and perfect it. That link also has that incredible recipe for pork belly, so you’ve got one of those “two for one deals” there.

Finally the award for “Most Motherfucking Outstanding Dish” goes to…

The Sultans Plate!

I mean holy shit! This has it all. Yogurt marinated and grilled lamb, chicken breast, rosemary-garlic potatoes, homemade hummus, homemade garlic sauce AND homemade naan? 

Fuck right off.

This was one of my favorite meals EVER produced in the Sunday Gravy test kitchen.

But enough with the awards shit.

What are we cooking for the Season 7 finale?

It’s got to be a sandwich right?

 

I thought I would hit a few familiar notes with today’s meal. The fact that we’re making a sandwich was pretty fucking pre-determined after all of the sandwiches we fucked around with this year.

I mean…

Just look…

At all…

Of these…

Tasty

Motherfuckers…

Goddammit now I’m hungry again.

That Po-Boy was the leader in the club house for the vaunted title of “Best Goddamn Sandwich for 2021” prior to today.

Since we’re doing a season finale why not finish with a regular goddamn beauty?

How about an Italian meatball sandwich where we make the mother sauce, the fuckin’ meatballs AND the bread?

Sound good?

Alrighty then!

You all are familiar by now with the Mother Sauce and that’s how we’re rolling today. I began the sauce on Saturday and finished it for service on Sunday.

Just as Jesus would have done!

As always everything starts with the mother sauce (this is from Season 1 episode 2 back in 2015.)

Vegan version this time.

We begin.

The Fuckin’ Sauce!

1 medium to large onion chopped

1 green pepper chopped

5 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 cup of olive oil.

1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes (San Marzano preferably)

1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (San Marzano preferably)

1 15 oz can of tomato sauce (just in case)

1/4 cup of red wine

2 tsp red pepper flake

Basil – fresh if you can

Oregano – also would be tastier fresh

Salt and pepper to taste.

Get yourself a green pepper – we had this talk before.

Now get to choppin’!

Same thing goes for the onion.

A couple of glugs of olive oil then into the pot they go.

Sauté for 7-8 minutes until translucent. While the veggies cook go ahead and mince up the garlic.

Let’s take a gander at our primary sauce ingredients.

Squish up the whole tomatoes by hand and add them in first.

Followed by the crushed tomatoes and NOW we add in the garlic.

Next you add your oregano, basil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, you know the drill.

Lid it up and get to cooking.

After the first hour of simmering add in a good pour of red wine.

I cooked this for about 5 hours on the first day. Here it is.

Let this cool down to room temperature. We’ll finish cooking this tomorrow.

Put the sauce in a container…

And into the fridge you go. See you tomorrow.

Next day.

The Fuckin’ Meatballs!

2 pounds of ground beef and pork

1 medium onion – minced very fine

5 cloves of garlic

2 eggs

1/2 cup of breadcrumbs – I used an Italian flavored panko that I just discovered

1/3 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano – you can use Romano and it wouldn’t break my heart.

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1/2 tablespoon of ground black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons of basil

1 1/2 teaspoons of oregano

1/2 tablespoon of red pepper flake – adjust to fit your sensibilities

 

This was a new food item for me.

Beef and pork in one package! It’s like the store knew I was coming there to shop! How fucking thoughtful!

Hey, how about we chop up another goddamn onion?

Fuck that, I have a better idea.

For a smoother meatball. I find this step is pretty goddamn key to help achieve the proper texture.

We do want our standard mince for the garlic however.

Now we combine the meat, onion, garlic, bread crumbs, eggs, oregano, basil, red pepper flake, salt and pepper, the grated parmigiano reggiano etc.

Wash your grubby ass hands and get to mixing. Mix this shit up thoroughly.

Wrap it up with some plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to incorporate. Hell, let it go a few hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

When ready to cook we form them bad boys up!

These will cook for about 30-35 minutes.

Want to see how we did?

Oh yeah.

I wanted to give a “start to finish” meatball recipe so you wouldn’t go fucking nuts bouncing back and forth between the recipes here. The actual meal structure was prep our bread first, cook the bread and let it rest. While the bread was resting cook the fuckin’ meatballs then assemble the sandwich. Since I let the meatballs rest in the fridge for several hours I had to adjust the chronologic order of the photos.

Now it wouldn’t be a true finale to this season of Sunday Gravy without…

You’re goddamn right we’re making our own bread for this. Standard bread application today with the mix, rise, punch down, rise again, shape, cook etc (recipe found here) with the one exception being…

I formed the dough into 3 loaves today. We want each loaf to be of standard “Meatball Sub” size.

After their final rise give them the customary slashes along parallel lines.

Baste with the egg wash and then into a pre-heated 375 oven they go for about 25 minutes. 

While the bread is cooking remove the meatball mixture from the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature.

After 25 minutes go ahead and pull the bread from the oven.

Fucking beautiful they are!

Leave the oven on for the meatball portion of our program.

While the bread cools and the meatballs bake it’s time to get to the finish line.

Start by getting our sauce back on a low flame.

Doesn’t need a lot more cooking we just want it to get hot and ready for service.

Cook the meatballs and let them cool for just a few minutes until they won’t burn the shit out of the roof of your mouth.

Ready for the finish line?

We build.

Slice one of the bread loaves down the middle and canoe out just a bit of the interior.

Like cheese on your meatball sub? Think you know my answer to that.

Fuck that shit! I’m using three types of cheese today.

Start with our old friend provolone. Add on a couple of slices.

If you’re wondering why I’m building the sandwich on aluminum foil it’s for a good reason.

We’re going to toast the bread for a couple of minutes to get the bread toasty and the cheese melty.

Hell yes.

Next step, add the meatballs.

Slather on the sauce.

I so rarely get to use the word “slather” in a sentence.

Now we add cheeses two and three. Grated parmigiano reggiano and some fresh WHOLE MILK mozzarella. Don’t get to worrying your ass over calories at this juncture.

I mean…

Close up please!

/turns around

[drops mike]

/walks away

 

//turns back around and sprints to the table to devour the sandwich in less than 5 minutes.

No tasting breakdown required at this point. You regular readers know all about this fucker already.

If you take the effort to make a two day sauce, your own scratch made meatballs AND fresh bread? Think you know exactly how that will turn out.

Goddamn showstopper. 

I’m not lying about that “5 minutes to devour” thing either. It was not a pretty sight but Mother of God was it delicious.

So?

Guess we’re about done for another season then.

Just think, back-to-back seasons of Sunday Gravy in a GODDAMN GLOBAL FUCKING PANDEMIC!

And we’re still here to tell about it.

Been a hell of a season people. Hell of a season.

Can’t wait to get back next year to do it all over again.

But now?

Motherfucking football!

Best of luck to your favorite team this year as long as it isn’t the Packers. May your team stay healthy and not miss a single game due to dumbfuck unvaccinated motherfuckers like my stupid fucking team.

Been a pleasure people.

Once again, you good folks are my reason for being.

I’ll be around the site most definitely.

May have a “Boots on the Ground” and everything.

 

Until next year…

Be Safe

Be Well

PEACE!

OH SHIT, almost forgot. Just created the Suicide League. It’s here! Come play with us Danny!

https://fantasy.espn.com/games/nfl-eliminator-challenge-2021/group?id=92e73e7b-f3a8-3b70-bbf5-908ac8d68372