Give Meatball Subs A Flavor And Texture Overhaul With One Crispy Topping

Savory meatballs, soft bread (or toasty, if that's your style), melty cheese, and perfectly-seasoned sauce — whether you throw it together at home or pick one up from your favorite sandwich shop, a great meatball sub checks a lot of boxes. Adding some crunch — in the form of crispy fried onions — can help you take your sub (or hoagie, if you're from Pennsylvania like me) to the next level. Once you try topping off your meatball sub with a light sprinkle of the stuff you'd normally use to top off a green bean casserole, you won't want it any other way (you'll also want to make sure you keep a bag of the stuff in the pantry — it's great on a ton of dinners).

Once you take your first bite of your crispy-fried-onion-topped meatball sub, you'll see why this combination is such a good one. While crispy fried onions are good on pretty much anything, there's something extra-fantastic about their texture against the soft bread (the contrast is clearer when you enjoy your sub untoasted, but it tastes great either way). Adding onion to meatballs is a hotly debated topic, so adding crispy fried onions to the top of your sub allows you to enjoy onion flavor, if that's your thing (it's absolutely my thing, just saying) without having to add onions to the entire batch of meatballs. This is a huge win to keep everyone happy if any of the other people you're serving prefer an onion-free recipe. Let's take a look at some things you'll want to keep in mind when you're adding crispy fried onions to your meatball sub.

There's no way around it — meatball subs are messy, and adding one more ingredient to the mess can make them even tougher to eat. If you'd rather not bust out a knife and fork to enjoy your onion-topped sub, we've got you. If your sandwich consists of simply meatballs topped with sauce in a bun, press the fried onions down slightly into the sauce so they don't scatter like delicious crispy confetti as soon as you try to take a bite.

If your sub includes melted cheese (pro tip: try Gordon Ramsay's favorite, buffalo mozzarella), don't add the onions directly to the cheese — they'll likely slide right off as soon as you try to take a bite, assuming the cheese has cooled a bit. Instead, try adding a thin layer of sauce on top of your cheese to act like glue for your onions, keeping them in place as you enjoy each bite (this is also a great way to get the parmesan you sprinkle on top to stay in place).

Want to add even more onion flavor to your sub? Try caramelizing some onions and adding them into your sauce. You can also spread some caramelized onions directly onto the bun before adding your meatballs for a bigger onion punch. Don't forget, though — these options won't add the textural contrast that crunchy fried onions will, so be sure to sprinkle them on top as well to get the full impact of elevating every bite of your sub.