Lamb, date and ricotta meatball subs with avo, jammy shallots and herby sawse

I have a lot of thoughts about wet bread. None of them are happy. Typically that makes me averse of things like sloppy joes and meatball subs. I love a good meatball accompanied by a good tomato sauce, don’t get me wrong, but putting it on bread just seems like a wildly unnecessary practice. The sauce makes the bread all soggy and the round nature of meatballs makes them poor stay-in-sandwich-material, something about the whole shabam is just not my vibe. Yet, if you look hard enough, vibes can always be found in unexpected places.

By any book this dish must qualify as a meatball sub, in having both meatballs and sub. Other than that form factor qualification it’s completely different. Better though. You’ll see.

And yes, I hear you, another photo that would have benefitted from the blessing of daylight. Just happened to have the meatball munchies in the evening, sawrry.

Ingredients #

Ingredients (for 2-4 people, we ate this for dinner so, unsurprisingly, wolfed down all of it, if you’d be making this for lunch it could probably feed 4 people)

• 2 large shallots
• 400gr minced lamb
• 125gr Ricotta
• 1 egg
• 25gr pine nuts
• 3 Medjool dates
• 4 garlic cloves
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Pinch of ground coriander
• Butter
• 15gr dill
• 15gr parsley
• 1 lemon
• 150gr greek yogurt
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• Olive oil
• Avocado
• Ciabatta (or other bread you’re excited about)
• Black pepper
• Salt

Method #

1. Slice your shallots and add them to a small non-stick skillet or sauce pan with some butter over low to medium heat. You’re going to want to caramelize these shallots until they’re beautifully jammy and sweet, anywhere from 20-30 minutes.

2. Chop your dates in small pieces and finely mince 2 cloves of your garlic. Add that to a bowl with your lamb, ricotta, egg, pine nuts, a pinch of ground coriander and cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper and season it well with about a teaspoon of salt. Mix it all together and set aside for now.

3. In an immersion or high power blender add dill, parsley, your remaining 2 cloves of garlic, the juice and zest of 1 lemon, yoghurt and tahini. Wizzzz it all together and add salt to taste. Put your sawse aside for now. If you feel like it got a bit runny just pop it in the fridge for a bit.

4. To a cast iron skillet, or other frying pan, add some butter. Slice your ciabatta (or bread of choice) open horizontally and place it cut side down in the pan. This will crisp up the inside of the bread which will save us from ending up in sogg-city.

5. When your bread is golden brown and crisp take it out of the skillet and put it aside for now.

6. Take your lamb mixture, and roll roughly golf ball sized meatballs. You should be able to make about 10-12 meatballs. Add these to your now empty skillet, with some extra butter, and fry them golden brown and crisp on all sides.

7. Assembly time! Cut open your avocado, while praying to the gods (all of them) that you got yourself a ripe one, and place a layer of the green gold on the bottom half of your bread. Top your avo with the caramelized shallots, meatballs, some drizzzzzles of your sauce and finally bread, sandwich-izing your creation, ready for messy consumption.

Damn. This is so good. Really I cannot stress this enough. You’re gonna have to try this out. Ricotta gives these meatballs a perfect level of hydration, the dates and pine nuts break up the otherwise often monotone flavor and texture profile, the sauce adds a bright tanginess, jammy shallots bring a deep sweetness to it all, and well avocado never hurt no sandwich.

So yes, vibes found. I am, from now on, deeply devoted to meatball subs.