Meatball Pizza Dippers

Sometimes on weekends, I just want something casual! Today, as I was checking the freezer to see what I could come up with, I spotted a bag of fully cooked Italian meatballs and grabbed it.  Time to hatch an idea that would turn them into something good.  I decided to attempt dipping sticks.  I had no idea if this would actually work out as I had it envisioned in my head, but I was willing to give it a shot.  

Here's how to do it:

Take 32 meatballs out of the bag and defrost them at 40% power for 4 minutes in the microwave.  I just divided them in half and put them on two paper plates and microwaved each plate for the 4 minutes.  That way, while the second plate was defrosting, I was getting into the next step with the first plate. I got 36 meatballs out, not sure how many I would actually need, and that was 4 too many, so my husband gladly devoured the extras... no wasting perfectly good food around here!!

In a medium bowl, combine:

4 dashes Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup marinara sauce

2 tablespoons hickory smoked barbeque sauce

Stir together well, then dump the first plate of thawed meatballs into it and move them around in the bowl until they're all well coated.

Put the coated meatballs onto a baking sheet after applying a light coating of non-stick cooking spray  and repeat the process with the second batch of meatballs.

With the oven preheated to 350 degrees, bake the meatballs for 18 minutes and then remove them.  Raise the oven temperature to 415 degrees, and proceed to the next step, leaving the meatballs on the baking sheet to cool slightly.  

Line another baking dish with parchment paper and use the non-stick spray again, lightly coating the paper.

Now, for the fun part.... take a refrigerated thin crust pizza dough out of the package and gently stretch it on all sides to even the edges up.  I did this right on the surface of my cutting board - it never sticks to the board.  

Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough as shown, in half, then quarter it, then cut it into strips, making eight equally sized pieces.

Spread the dough with a spoonful of ready-made marinara sauce and top the sauce with a little grated cheese.

Put 4 meatballs in the center of each portion of dough and wrap them up in the following way:

First, fold the ends in over the meatballs.

Then gently stretch the back flap towards you over the top of the meatballs.

Finally, stretch the front flap over the top, away from you and gently press down.

As you roll them, place them on the parchment paper, seam side down and bake for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, remove them from the oven, raise the oven temperature to 425, and lightly brush them with olive oil, then sprinkle them lightly with coarse salt, and return them to the oven for an additional  10 minutes.

They will look like this when you return them to the oven.  Ovens vary, so bake them until they are nicely browned on the bottom as shown below.  If you don't do this, they probably wouldn't hold up when you dip them later.

I'm using the remaining marinara sauce with a little Worcestershire sauce stirred in, heated in the microwave, for dipping sauce.

The end result was a tasty and satisfying meal.  I didn't serve anything else with these, and we didn't quite polish them all off.  I have a feeling somebody around my house will grab what's left and munch on them a little later in the evening and I won't need to worry about what to do with left-overs.

I'd be willing to make these again and will probably experiment with additional ingredients.  We enjoyed them!