Meatball Sub Casserole
INGREDIENTS
- 1 box or bag frozen garlic toasts (8 toasts)
- 1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
- 1 (0.7 ounce) packet Dry Italian Dressing Seasoning Mix
- 1 pound bag fully cooked frozen meatballs, slightly thawed
- 1 (24 ounce) jar marinara sauce
- 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven according to package directions for garlic toast. Place garlic toasts on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until they edges just start to toast a bit. Remove from oven.
- Make sure oven is now set to 350°
- In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, Italian seasoning and 1½ cups mozzarella cheese. Spread mixture over toasted bread slices. I found this easy to do with a spatula and my fingers.
- Place meatballs over the cream cheese bread slices. Pour marinara sauce over the meatballs.
- Sprinkle remaining 1½ cups cheese over the top.
- Bake uncovered 40 minutes until bubbly and meatballs are cooked through.
RECIPE BACKSTORY
Thanks to my friend Lana (bblues) for finding this recipe!
Holy Moly, this made my house smell like an Italian restaurant! I knew from the smell this was going to be an awesome dinner!
I bought Barilla Marinara and it is the best I've tasted yet! It had a sweet touch to it and was out of this world good! Garlic toast had a nice crunch to it even after baking, which I wasn't sure about! Make sure to get the garlic toast a little crunchy when you are baking it alone in the 1st step!
As we were having dinner I had this idea of making this a Spaghetti & Meatball Casserole by adding some marinara to some cooked spaghetti and layering it on top of the chesse mixture/garlic toasts and then the meatballs, rest of the marinara and cheese! Who doesn't love spaghetti & meatballs with garlic toast, right? What do you think?