When I posted about the most excellent Stuffing Mix Meatballs yesterday, a friend asked me “why would a large meatball be a bad thing?”
And, really, it isn’t, except…
These meatballs, while very good, are also very filling, so, better to let folk enjoy more at their discretion than fewer because they are just too much.
And, smaller works better in this recipe.
I mean, obviously, the big honkin’ meatballs worked fine, but smaller (two tablespoon scoop) would’ve fit better and made four more sliders, so, more meat and bread and cheese and sauce is a good thing, right?
INGREDIENTS
•1 (8 oz) can crescent roll dough
•12 to 16 cooked meatballs
•Shredded cheese
•Pasta sauce or barbecue sauce
•2 tbsp butter
•1 tsp Italian seasoning (optional)
•1/2 tsp garlic powder
Note 1: the original recipe, from the nice folk at Pillsbury, paired shredded Mozzarella with basil tomato sauce for the meatballs. Since I was using barbecue sauce, I chose a Cheddar Jack blend.
Note 2: if using frozen meatballs, cook them first in the ‘wave according to package instructions, and allow to cool a bit before assembling the sliders.
Heat your oven to 350º and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Open and unroll the crescent roll dough and press any seams together with your fingers – I used a Crescent Roll Dough Sheet.
Cut the dough lengthwise into two strips.
Melt the butter in a small pan, then stir in the garlic powder and, if you are going the tomato sauce route, Italian seasoning.
Sprinkle a bit of your chosen cheese along each strip of dough, then top with evenly spaced meatballs. My larger (four tablespoon) meatballs fit six per strip, the smaller (two tablespoon) should easily allow eight per strip.
Fold the dough up and over the meatballs as shown (smaller meatballs should work better here, too), then brush the dough with the seasoned melted butter.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the dough is golden brown and the meatballs are heated through.
Remove from the oven, slice in between each meatball, and serve.
Because I had heated my meatballs in barbecue sauce, I served mine with ranch dressing as a dipper. If you have gone traditional with Mozzarella and Italian seasoning butter, serve with warm tomato basil sauce as a dipper.