This Popular Hot Sub Is 10x Better On A Baked Potato — You're Welcome

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The baked potato is one of the world's leading comfort foods. But, in spite of its enticing texture — a crisp exterior with fluffy, steaming starch inside — it just doesn't taste like much until you dress it up. Butter and salt are the delicious standards, but there are tons more ways to upgrade basic baked potatoes. And one standout of the sandwich genre also happens to be exceptionally well-suited to the baked potato treatment: the meatball sub.

Most of your usual 2-inch meatballs fit perfectly inside the average baked potato. Their savory combination of beef and pork, or whatever protein you're using, gives the vegetable some heft; the tomato sauce or gravy that typically cloaks a meatball sub gives the basic carb more zing; and, let's be honest, you might have tried to jam some cheese in there, too, anyway. The mozzarella often covering a meatball sub is also an appetizingly melty variety for your spud. Serving it this way can also stand in as a whole dinner, taking any pairing acrobatics off your plate for one day. You can even further customize your meatball sub baked potato from there, swapping in, say, turkey meatballs or provolone cheese. You'll just want to build it properly to get the best of both culinary categories.

You probably already know how to bake a potato. You wait. Yes, they always seem to take forever and ever, but a little brush of olive oil, a few shakes of salt and pepper, and a whole darn hour in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit are worth the precious minutes for potato perfection. Plus, that gives you time to ready your recarbfigured "sub" materials.

Should you want to keep this on the easy, albeit time-consuming, side, the top picks in our frozen meatball ranking will serve you well. Our No. 1 selection, Rao's Made for Home Meatballs & Sauce, even comes replete with the requisite sub marinara. Like the potato, it also calls for almost an hour in a 375-degree oven, which is about as symphonic as a dinner can get. So, all you need to do is shred the cheese. Shredded cheese melts faster, which is a real boon when you've been waiting for a baked potato, but sliced is also fine if that's what you have. A double dose of dairy is also ideal. 

Once your potato and meatballs are done and removed from the oven, you'll split the former as you normally would and arrange a handful of the mozzarella on either side. Topped with a few of the saucy meatballs, the cheese will begin to melt without further intervention. Another shower of cheese is the crowning touch, and it will get nice and bubbly after a few moments under the broiler. This dish will certainly expand your notion of what both a sub and a baked potato can be.