Make-Ahead Pizza Subs with Ground Beef
Picture opening the fridge on a busy weeknight and finding a dozen pizza subs already wrapped and waiting. This make-ahead recipe simmers ground beef in pizza sauce, spoons it into soft sub rolls under a heap of mozzarella and wraps each one up, so anybody in the house can grab one and heat it in about a minute. Some folks call them beef pizza rolls, and they eat like a pizza-flavored Sloppy Joe that actually stays in the bun. Four ingredients and about 25 minutes fill your fridge for days.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Homemade Pizza Rolls
- Serves: 12
- Main Ingredients: ground beef, shredded mozzarella cheese, dozen sub rolls, 15-oz jars pizza sauce
- Why You'll Love It: These homemade pizza rolls are like Sloppy Joes with a pizza twist! In our soft sub rolls, we add ground beef cooked in pizza sauce and lots of melted mozzarella cheese.
My mama used to make these when she and Daddy went out of town. With a batch of these in the fridge and a little extra money for anything unexpected, she could leave for the weekend confident we wouldn’t starve. I still make them on Fridays and when the Super Bowl is coming up, because a fridge full of pizza subs means I get the weekend off from cooking.
Why These Pizza Subs Work for Make-Ahead Meals
Cooking the beef right in the pizza sauce until it’s bubbly gives you a thick, meaty filling that stays put in the bun instead of soaking through. I like a sturdy sub roll here for the same reason. Thinner bread gets soggy after a day in the fridge, but a good hoagie-style roll holds up for days.
Buying rolls that aren’t sliced lets you cut them like a hot dog bun, not quite all the way through, so the filling stays tucked inside when you wrap them.
Ingredients for Pizza Subs
- Sub rolls: Unsliced hoagie or sub rolls are best. Save the bag they come in for storing the wrapped subs.
- Pizza sauce: Jarred pizza or marinara sauce works, or use my quick pizza sauce from scratch.
- Ground beef: Italian sausage or ground turkey work too, and you can stir in chopped pepperoni once the beef is browned.
- Mozzarella: Mix in a little parmesan if you like.
You’ll find the exact amounts in the recipe card below. Halve everything for six subs.
Helpful Tips Before You Start
- Drain the beef well before the sauce goes in so the filling isn’t greasy.
- Sautéed onions and bell peppers are a good addition to the skillet along with the beef.
- Set up an assembly line: slice all the rolls, fill them all, top them all with cheese, then wrap.
- For a crisp bun, unwrap the sub, open it up and run it under the broiler or in the air fryer for a few minutes.
How to Make Pizza Subs
1Cook the Beef in Pizza Sauce
Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking it up as it cooks, and drain off the grease. Stir in both jars of pizza sauce and cook on medium until bubbly.
2Slice the Rolls
Slice each roll like a hot dog bun, stopping before you cut all the way through.
3Fill with Beef
Spoon the beef mixture into each roll.
4Top with Mozzarella
Pile shredded mozzarella over the filling.
5Wrap Each Sub
Wrap each sub tightly in plastic wrap and tuck the ends underneath.
6Store and Reheat
Slide the wrapped subs back into the bag the rolls came in and refrigerate. When you want one, unwrap it and microwave for about a minute.
What to Serve with Pizza Subs
A basket of parmesan oven fries turns these into a full supper, and something crunchy and cool on the side balances all that cheese. My go-tos are 3-ingredient vinegar slaw or a scoop of sweet and tangy burger slaw. Warm marinara or ranch for dipping never hurts either.
For a game day spread, set them out with a tray of pepperoni and bacon pizza pinwheels and a few more picks from my 40+ game day recipes.
Pizza Subs FAQs
How long do pizza subs keep in the fridge?
Wrapped tight and stored in the roll bag, they keep for up to 4 days, which covers a long weekend or most of a school week of lunches.
Can I freeze pizza subs?
They freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw them overnight in the fridge, then reheat in the microwave, oven or air fryer. A little garlic butter brushed on before reheating gives them a garlic bread finish.
Can I use crescent rolls instead of sub rolls?
Crescent dough works for a smaller, thinner version if you’ll eat them right away. For make-ahead subs, I stick with thick rolls because the sauce doesn’t seep through in the fridge.
Make-Ahead Pizza Subs with Ground Beef
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 dozen sub rolls
- 2 15-oz jars pizza sauce
Instructions
- In a large skillet, brown the beef over medium-high heat, breaking it into small pieces, until no longer pink. Drain off any grease.2 lbs ground beef
- Add both jars of pizza sauce to the beef. Stir and cook on medium until bubbly.2 15-oz jars pizza sauce
- Slice each roll almost all the way through, like a hot dog bun. Spoon in the beef mixture, top with cheese and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, 1 dozen sub rolls
- Slide the wrapped subs back into the bag the rolls came in and refrigerate.
- When ready to eat, unwrap a sub and microwave for about 1 minute.
Hi! I found your website about a week ago….LOVE it?….just wondering, do you heat these in the saran wrap?….When I warmed mine up, the roll got kind of “rubbery”…am I doing something wrong?
Sheesh, I can’t believe how rude Anonymous was! These rolls are healthier than a lot of things you can eat- with them in the fridge or freezer, you can forgo swinging by a fast food place. And Christy, you are a brave woman for keeping up unkind comments people write. I don’t think people would fault you for deleting the negative ones, but you leave them up :o)
Back on track, I made these tonight because the end of the semester is looming (I’m going to school to be an elementary teacher) and it’s going to be a very busy week. I used ground turkey because I’m a big weirdo who hates ground beef (I had serious food texture issues as a child and while 99% of them have gone away and I’m not a picky eater, ground beef does me in). I added chopped pepperoni, sauteed mushrooms and sliced black olives, and ended up adding some oregano and garlic powder. I hope you don’t mind me messing with your recipes. I always figure people should change recipes around as they see fit. Also, your method of wrapping them individually and then sticking them back in the bag is ingenious. Anyway, my fiance and I love the pizza rolls! So good and so easy! I will definitely be making these again. They remind us of Sloppy Joes so we changed their name to Sloppy Luigis because Pizza Rolls make us think of those little frozen pizza things from the grocery store.
love your add ins. I was thinking of doing something along those lines my self. I’ll be making this very soon. yummy in my tummy. easy for the kiddos to make. they always want something right after school…
Hello!
Love your website, and i cant wait to try some of your recipes.
A quick suggestion about onions and peppers…..I have a lot of these so-called picky eaters in my family as well. What i have discovered is that they don’t dislike the taste of onions and peppers so much as the sensation of biting into a vegetable….When cooking for these picky palates, i grate my onion and pepper into the food and then cook it. The vegetables literally disappear into the food but the taste is greatly enhanced. I also find that grating can be a lot faster than chopping vegetables, i just hold it right over the pan on the stove. Of course i can never let them see me doing this or they surely won’t eat it!
But, what you don’t know cant hurt you, right?
I have read a few of the receipes you have on here and I really want to try some. My Daughter is so picky and likes only the chicken or Pizza stuff that I make, and she refuses to eat my ground meat receipes. Do you have anything for picky eaters, around the ages of 15? She is actually worried about gaining weight and wants to eat healthy but I feel limited by her “standards”!
I am also writing to tell you that you have made such a great impression on me, the receipes and the way you tell them are really
interesting. I lost my mom 8 years ago and you have set a comforting impression on me. I love to just read how you write and seem to be enjoying what your doing. I was right along with you was the way you made me feel. WOW!! You are doing a great thing and for all single moms out there that have a desire to cook good delicious meals out there for there family, friends and loved ones this is really AWESOME! Thanks for blessing me with your sweet personality I enjoyed reading these and look forward to more of what your doing there. GOD BLESS YOU!!
Love this recipe and think it’s super, can’t wait to try it!
I love your blog!
Hi , Thanks for the wonderful receipt “Christy’s crockpot Chili”.
we just love it,its quick and freezes well. I purchased your cook books for my daughter and daughter in law and they love them.
I just love your blog, it makes my day… Have a great weekend and hope your moving goes well…
Hey gang! I think anonymous was a little uppity on the “hurting the environment” but I think you can always go healthy if you want to by changing things just slightly as they suggested. Christy’s recipes are great because you can use the recipe and just change the ingredients a little if you feel bad about something- like white bread, for instance. I don’t eat white bread, I would switch out to sourdough rolls, however, the recipe still works. And the suggestion of wrapping in foil and putting in the oven- that is what I would do because I NEVER put plastic in the microwave! There is supposed to be microwave safe wrap now, though- for ya’ll who are dead set on “I want to microwave food with wrap!” I would suggest that.
Just my two cents 🙂 Be well!