Homemade Italian Meatballs
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Italian sausage, lean ground beef and spices combined together and formed into meatballs. Pop them in your mouth as they are, cover them in sauce as an appetizer, on a sub sandwich, or as a topping for pasta. Anyway you try them, you just have to try them!
These Italian Meatballs were amazing. They packed a real flavor punch! I made them about a month ago, and added them to a homemade marinara sauce and served them over spaghetti.
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Truth be told? I only planned on using half of them for this, and then adding the other half to a crock pot with a homemade Alfredo sauce and using them as an appetizer the next day. But, then we tasted them. And then they were gone.
Pin them before you go!
We entertained our friends, Todd and Traci, one evening in July. They came for dinner and dessert, and we had a great time. I made spaghetti and meatballs, bread and salad for dinner. We noshed on Fresh Bruschetta and Charcuterie before dinner, and wrapped things up with Banana Cream Pie.
We had planned to go out for Italian food, and I decided, why not? I had a few recipes I had been wanting to share with you all, so it was a winning situation!
Ingredients in Homemade Italian Meatballs:
- onion, garlic
- Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- parmesan cheese
- ground beef, Italian sausage
- eggs
- basil, parsley, oregano
- salt
- olive oil
Combine all of your ingredients in a large bowl.
Roll into small meatballs. I used my small cookie dough scoop. I got 45 meatballs out of my mixture.
Cover a cookie sheet in foil, and place a wire rack over the top. Place meatballs on rack.
Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.
Eat them just how they are, or add them to sauce for topping pasta, placing on a meatball sub sandwich, or add them to an Alfredo or cheese sauce in a crock pot and serve as appetizers using toothpicks.
These Salisbury Steak Meatballs, served over mashed potatoes is one of our family’s most favorite comfort food meals.
Best Meatball Recipes from An Affair from the Heart:
- Salisbury Steak Meatballs
- Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Stuffed Pepper Meatballs
- Instant Pot Twisted Meatball Subs
- Grilled Bratwurst & Kraut Meatball Kabobs
- Swedish Meatballs
- Bacon Cheeseburger Meatballs
Low carb Bacon Cheeseburger Meatballs — the best appetizer around!
See? When it comes to a delicious variety of meatballs, there is no need to look any further!
I hope you enjoy this recipe! 
Homemade Italian Meatballs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup onion chopped
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of each: basil oregano, parsley and salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large cookie sheet with heavy duty foil, and top with a wire rack.
- Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.
- Form into approximately 1 Tablespoon sized meatballs. Place on wire rack.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until meatballs reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
- Serve alone or with sauce.
Nutrition
My partner is a massive fan of meatballs, and he loved this recipe! Absolutely perfect 🙂
These like easy to make and a family favorite. I love the addition of the Italian seasonings.
Sounds delicious, easy to make and really good, I’m definitely going to try to make this weekend, hope it’ll as good as you do :)). Five stars for you and thanks so much for sharing!
Oh yum! You are speaking directly to a meatball lover! The spices in these meatballs sound divine. I want the entire bowl now!
You have the best meatballs! Seriously. I think my goal is to work my way through all of them!
Ooh, I love meatballs and needed a better recipe than what I have been using. I love all your options.
This meatball recipe looks like the BOMB! I am such a meatball fan and can’t wait to try this recipe!
There is nothing like a delicious Italian dinner with pasta and sauce. Add these delicious meatballs and you are set on comfort food.
WOW! I love the recipe of this meat balls. I often make them, but was looking to improve my recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Hey, I am half Italian and this is one of the best meatballs I’ve had. I made a few changes that worked for me. I used Bob Evans zesty Italian sausage for a little kick. I made 16 large size meatballs and baked for 35 minutes then put in the crock pot with two jars of Newman’s Socarronie sauce for four hours on low. Incredible!
What a HUGE compliment! I LOVE Bob Evans breakfast sausage! I will look for that one next time. I love my Italian food spicy, too!
I was looking for a different meatball recipe to try. I followed this to a T except for one change….I used a 1/2 teaspoon of salt instead of a full teaspoon and added a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder instead. I added the minced garlic too. Our family likes garlic! These came out great! I sprayed my wire rack so the meatballs wouldn’t stick. The texture and flavor was perfect. I will definitely use this as my go to Italian meatball recipe.
I am thrilled you found a new favorite!
I’m trying to use up meat from the freezer so in ground beef all I have is 72% lean do I need to adjust the recipe any?
Not at all!! You will be fine. Just drain any excess grease if you have it.
These are the best meatballs I’ve ever made. A lot of touted recipes have milk in them and I just do not care for it. The meatballs always turn out too wet. At first I saw that this recipe calls for three eggs and a whole cup of breadcrumbs and thought that was too much. But it is absolutely perfect. I make these all the time and will never use another meatballs recipe to go with my spaghetti and sauce. Thank you so much!
The only thing I do differently is that I add a little bit of Worcestershire sauce, brown them in a cast iron, drain the fat, and then bake then the rest of the way in the oven bathed in sauce. Perfect!
Thank you, Christi!! I am thrilled that you like them!! I need to make them again, I have been craving them!
Can you freeze these?
Absolutely!! You could freeze them before they are cooked or after. If you do it before I would place them on a baking sheet and freeze them BEFORE you put them in a freezer bag, so they don’t stick together. 🙂
Any problem with leaving the cheese out?
No problem! You may need a bit more bread crumbs though.
Im very excited to try this recipe. But I don’t own a wire rack. Will it work in the oven without one? Or should I cook them on the stovetop?
THe wire rack helps to keep them from sitting in the grease. You can make them without it, just sit them on some paper towels when they are done to soak up any excess grease after they cook. 🙂
This recipe is amazing! So good. I broiled them on low to give them a little crust at the end. Perfectly moist and excellent flavor.
That’s a great idea!! I will give that a try next time I make them!
These look delicious and want to try the recipe. Both of us are prediabetic and I am doing paleo. Is there any substitution for the bread crumbs like flax meal you would recommend? If so, any changes to amount?
Hi there! I have a friend that does Paleo, so I asked her. She told me that they buy one from the store sometimes that is in the Keto section – but most often she puts pork rinds in her food processor and uses that! She said they work great!
These are really good! I only did one little weird change… I was short on Italian crumbs so I crushed White Cheddar Cheez-Its for about half of the crumbs. I am now considering it one of my more inspired moments. I froze some fully cooked and they kept very well that way. We will definitely be keeping these on hand in the freezer for quick weeknight meals. Thanks for the great recipe!
I love that!! Such a great iead! I have used Italian croutons and crushed them – but that sounds ike a yummy addition. I am so happy that you enjoy th recipe!