Meatballs: squeeze small chunks of meat from the sausages (around 4-6 per sausage) and discard the skin. Roll the chunks into mini meatballs, then fry in a large pan over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil until golden and nearly cooked through the centre.
Sauce: Lower heat to medium and add in onion and garlic. Fry until they begin to soften and lightly brown, then pour in passata. Add basil, oregano, chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Give it a good stir, then lower heat and simmer until it begins to thicken (20-30mins).
Spaghetti: Meanwhile, add spaghetti to salted boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain and toss through the sauce. Turn off heat.
Garlic Butter: In a small pot combine butter with garlic and parsley. Spread over one side of each of the slices of bread.
Sandwich: Flip over half the slices so they're butter-side-down, then top with mozzarella and parmesan. Use your tongs to top with the spaghetti, then top with more parmesan and mozzarella. Add another slice of bread butter-side-up.
Cook: 2 at a time, add them to a pan over low-medium heat and fry both sides until golden, with the cheese nice and gooey in the centre (don't crank up the heat or the garlic butter will burn).
Serve: Repeat with remaining sandwiches then slice in half and enjoy!
Quick Demo
Notes
a) Do I have to make the Meatballs? - Nope, you can just fill these with spaghetti in the sauce. I like to bulk it out with the meatballs though. I call these 'cheatballs' because you're literally just using sausage meat. However you can make your own meatballs, or get storebought meatballs (you may just need to re-roll them into small balls so they fit in the sandwich). For reference, 6 pork sausages are around 14oz/400g total weight.b) Can I make it into a Bolognese? - Yep! Just use 14oz/400g beef mince and fry that after you've fried the onions/garlic. Then just follow the recipe as stated.c) Make Ahead - I wouldn't recommend making the whole sandwich ahead of time, but you can certainly make the garlic butter and spaghetti sauce ahead of time. You can even freeze the sauce, just thaw in the fridge. If it's just the sauce, you can reheat over the stove and then toss through cooked spaghetti. If you've made both the spaghetti and sauce ahead of time just bring to room temp before you add to the sandwich otherwise it won't heat through properly.d) Serving - This recipe makes 4 very big sandwiches, but 5 more realistic sized ones. Just depends on the size of your bread!
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
*Nutrition is based on the absence of salt unless stated as a measurement in the ingredients. Cost is worked out based on ingredients bought from UK supermarkets, then divided by the number of servings. In both instances these values are just for guidance. Please check out my FAQ Page for more info.