The Tangy Cheese Gordon Ramsay Melts Over Meatball Subs

You may have learned about his foolproof technique for fluffy scrambled eggs or even how he elevates tuna salad, but have you heard of Gordon Ramsay's simple upgrade when making a meatball sub? The world's favorite feisty chef has shared a few ingredients that he adds to these well-loved sandwiches to make them even better than they already are. One of these crucial elements is cheese. More specifically, the celebrity reaches for buffalo mozzarella.

You've likely already heard of mozzarella, as it's the transformative ingredient that pairs well with well-known foods such as pizza, caprese sandwiches, salads, and more. It's usually made from the milk of cows, which is the variety you'll find commonly available at many local grocery stores. While the more delicate standard mozzarella has a creamy texture and is quite mild in taste, buffalo mozzarella, on the other hand, is made from a totally different animal. You guessed it — it comes from buffaloes. It also packs a bit more punch due to its higher fat content and saltier makeup. This makes the ingredient a little tangier than its cow-derived counterpart, as well as richer and overall bolder in flavor. This seemingly small difference actually has much more of an impact on recipes than you'd think, starting right with a good old meatball sub.

Though it can be an advantage that buffalo mozzarella has a stronger taste, this perk comes at a cost. Buffalo mozzarella is not only pricier, but it's also a bit harder to find at grocery stores. It also has a shorter shelf life and will only last between one to three days, depending on where you store it. The short longevity of this dairy product makes it all the more important to get it into your meatball sub sooner rather than later. That's not a bad thing, since it means you're that much closer to experiencing the blissful zest this cheese adds. 

Ramsay shows in a YouTube Shorts video that it's easy as ever to incorporate it into your hoagie. He simply piles a few chunks of the ingredient onto some pan-fried meatballs, then slips the whole sandwich into the oven until the cheese melts. Once he takes it out, he tops it all off with homemade salsa that uses diced tomatoes as the bulk of it. This combination blends the sweet acidity of the juicy red fruit with the creamy buffalo mozzarella. The cheese also serves as a sharper and brighter, more detectable component of the meal against the meatballs' deeper, smokier flavor. Upon trying it out, you may be happy to discover that of all the best meatball subs in the country, the star is the one made right at home using Ramsay's trick.