Serve Homemade Italian Meatballs for an easy dinner and leftovers on a bun for lunch. Authentic Italian meatballs make a great freezer meal and the meatball recipe is perfect paired with our easy homemade spaghetti sauce.
We love Italian food. Every now and then we make pasta with sausage or a creamy pasta sauce. We even love meatless pasta recipes. But every so often we just have to take it back to a classic. Homemade meatballs!
Homemade Italian Meatballs Recipe
So I’ve been keeping a secret. A very delicious secret. And it’s these Homemade Italian Meatballs.
Authentic Italian Meatballs
You know we share only the best of our family recipes and this one definitely ranks as one of the top. This is an old family recipe from my mom’s side of the family. Although we are not of Italian heritage in any way, a distant relative married an Italian woman, who then let the family in on her authentic Italian meatball recipe.
Although I’m sure authentic Italian meatballs are made many different ways, we are so in love with this version.
Of course I’d have to say what I love the most is the taste and texture of the meatballs. Tender and savory, just the way a meatball should be. But a close second is how versatile this recipe is. Let me take you through an example of how you can make this into an easy freezer meal, slow cooker dinner, and yes, even a school lunch for the kids!
What is the Best Meat for Meatballs
For our homemade meatballs we use a mix of lean ground beef and Italian sausage. You can use ground chuck if you’d like. It gives great flavor!
For the sausage, we like bulk sweet Italian sausage, but you can use hot Italian sausage also.
What are meatballs made of?
You may think that meatballs well…just meat. But if you want tender, moist meatballs with amazing flavor, there is a few other things to add:
- Ground Beef & Bulk Italian Sausage.
- Parmesan cheese. Because we add parmesan cheese to everything.
- Eggs. Eggs act as a binder in this recipe.
- Italian bread crumbs. This helps soak up some of the juices and keeps the meatballs tender.
- Parsley and Basil. We use dried herbs, but for a flavor boost, use freshly snipped parsley and basil.
- Garlic salt and pepper. For flavor!
How to Make Meatballs
Meatballs are easier than ever to make!
Simply mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. It may be easiest to whisk the eggs in a small bowl first so that they are easier to mix in. We often find ourselves setting aside the spoon and simply using our hands to mix. It’s messy, but it’s just faster this way.
For perfectly uniform meatballs, use a cookie dough scoop to scoop up the meat mixture. Roll balls and place them on a baking sheet to get ready to bake!
How do I get my meatballs to stick together?
When making meatballs, you want to be sure there is not too much moisture added. The beef mix should be moist, but not soggy. Eggs help bind the meatballs together, but if there are too many eggs (or milk or other liquid), the meatballs will fall apart.
When you are mixing the meatballs, if you think the mixture feels soggy, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Italian bread crumbs.
How to Cook Meatballs
Is it better to pan fry meatballs or bake them in the oven? Italian tradition pan frys meatballs, then lets them finish cooking while simmering in sauce.
We like to bake our meatballs for several reasons:
- It is less messy.
- It takes less time because you can cook a lot of them at once in the oven.
- It fully cooks the meatballs so that you can freeze them.
- It helps reduce the fat by baking the meatballs fully before adding them to sauce.
*Pro Tip: Place a wire rack on a large baking sheet. Bake the meatballs on the wire rack so all of the fat drips down during baking.**
Can you freeze meatballs?
Yes! Cook the meatballs and allow them to cool. Split the meatballs up in whatever size Ziploc bags you’d like and pop them in the freezer to use at another time. Meatballs will freeze well for up to 2 months.
Reheat Meatballs in the Slow Cooker
We are crazy about meatballs that we’ve simmered in sauce. They taste amazing. Whether your meatballs are fresh or frozen, you can put the meatballs in the slow cooker, cover them with homemade sauce and let them simmer all day.
Let me tell you that this is by far my most favorite way to eat these meatballs. That extra time in the slow cooker gives them a depth of flavor that will make you swoon.
What should I eat with meatballs?
Pasta is a classic choice for meatballs. But what if you don’t want the pasta? We love serving meatballs with baked potatoes, corn casserole, a side salad and Italian bread. So, so good!
Meatball Sandwich Recipe
One of my favorite school lunchroom lunches was “Meatball Splash” which was simply homemade Italian meatballs smothered in spaghetti sauce, served on a hot dog bun. Our lunch ladies served these often and I loved them!
I take this best meatball recipe and serve it on buns for our own homemade meatball sub sandwiches. And your child can enjoy these at school by simply putting the warm meatballs and sauce in a thermos. Send along spoon and a hot dog bun in a baggie and they can make their own sandwich at school.
If your kids are like mine, they grow tired of peanut butter and jelly very quickly. They’d be super happy to have a home cooked comfort meal for their school day.
What You’ll Need to Make this Recipe
- Italian Sausage: You can buy Italian sausage…or make your our favorite Italian sausage seasoning recipe.
- Medium Cookie Scoop: To get all of your meatballs a uniform size, use a cookie scoop.
- Large Baking Pan: This is my favorite pan for baking large amounts of meatballs….and cinnamon rolls. 🙂
Other Meatball Recipes
- Swedish Meatballs
- Grandma’s Meatballs
- Pizza Meatballs
- Gluten Free Chicken Meatballs
- Paleo Italian Meatballs
Homemade Italian Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 3/4 pound ground Italian sausage
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients together.
- Roll into 1 1/2" balls and place them closely together in 9x13 pans that have been sprayed with cooking spray. **You can place a wire rack on the baking sheet and bake the meatballs on the rack so that the fat drips down if you'd like.**
- Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve the meatballs immediately with sauce and spaghetti, put them in the slow cooker along with sauce to have them simmer, or freeze the meatballs in Ziploc bags to use another time.
- If you freeze the meatballs, allow them to cool completely before packaging them.
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I loooove me some homemdae meatballs. I always bake and then freeze mine too! But I never make meatballs subs, and now i’m wondering what is wrong with me. 🙂
meatball splash? Now that is one I haven’t heard before but I’m intrigued! This looks absolutely delicious!
Step #1 made me giggle. Your recipe is so simple yet seems incredibly delicious! Can’t wait to try it!
Classic spaghetti and meatballs awesome but this sandwich would satisfy any kid in school too! Gorgeous photos!
I have no Italian heritage but I wish I did because Italian food always look so good!! I’ll have to try my hand at these, I might surprise myself, haha!
Just beautiful! This is the kind of dish that is good for the soul!
My daughter’s favorite thing to bring to school is spaghetti and meatballs! I just have to try this recipe for her, she will love it, actually our whole family would!
Hello, comfort food! The perfect recipe to enjoy as I catch up with everyone around the dinner table after a long school day.
These look fantastic! I’ll take mine on a roll with extra cheese please! 🙂
Old family recipes are the best! These meatballs look so good! Saving the recipe for later! 😉
This is a great idea for my kids school lunches! They look amazing!
I just love the idea of having them ready ahead of time and throwing them in the slow cooker! Plus my daughter would love this in her lunch!
I love packing my kiddos a hot lunch! Meatballs are a favorite in our house and these look wonderful!
These meatballs look perfect! Beautiful pictures! Pinned!
This is a great recipe, it is easy and not time consuming and it requires what most people already have in their pantries.I have found a new favorite ! Thank you! 🙂
Hello, you mentioned that you could put them in a slow cooker and simmer all day. So my question is do I just prepare the meatballs and then add them uncooked to the sauce and cook on low all day?
Do you cook the meatballs first or can you just freeze them for later then cook when they thaw? How long can they stay in the freezer? Thanks.
Hi
I just finish mixing I am tired could I leave refrigerated till tomorrow to vouldnanc
I have to make 150 meatballs for an American Legion fund-raiser and decided to use your recipe, since it most resembles my best friend’s ingredients to her Italian family recipe that she’s misplaced. Can you tell me how many meatballs this recipe makes? Thanks!
What if you don’t own a wire rack and can’t go out to get one?&
My husband is Italian and is missing his Granddaddy and his Mom’s Sunday gravy and all of their recipes. Unfortunately they are no longer with us nor are their recipes. We have your recipe in our over right now and I can’t wait for him to taste them and let the memories flow. I’d love any old school Italian recipes that you would share with me. This was fun to make. Here’s to good eating!
Thank you!
I didn’t want to cook. But too bad for me. I found this recipe and within an hour I had a great sketti and meatball dinner. Just as my husband and I sat down to eat my grandkids came in and NEEDED food and gramma had plenty.
I would like to make another batch for the freezer. My grandkids have hollow legs😁, got to fill em up!!
When your recipe calls for Parmesan Cheese, do you use the Kraft version in a canister, or fresh grated Parmesan? Thank you.
How many links of italian sausage do you use for 3 fourths of a pound
I substituted Romano cheese instead of Parmesan cheese. I also used Italian seasoning instead of the parsley flakes. I made both the substitutions because I didn’t have Parmesan cheese or parsley flakes. These meatballs were amazing! They were almost as good as my Italian grandmother used to make them.