Easy Italian Meatballs (2024)

Homemade meatballs in a quick tomato sauce make for the perfect easy family dinner! Serve over spaghetti for the ultimate homemade meal.

If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for new recipes to make with ground beef. It’s such a budget friendly way of getting dinner on the table, but wow, it can get so boring. Homemade Italian Meatballs to the rescue!

I make these so often, I could probably whip them up in my sleep. In an effort of transparency though, I’d be lying if I said I never grab a bag of frozen meatballs and serve them with jarred sauce…

In contrast, this is my recipe for Italian Meatballs, completely homemade from scratch – still easy, but an actual recipe and not just instructions for how to combine pre-made foods.

A little disclaimer

Let me add this little disclaimer: This is not an authentic Italian recipe, as in I didn’t consult any actual Italians when making this. This is how I like to make meatballs in tomato sauce, and I didn’t know what else to call them. “meatballs in tomato sauce” sounded a teeny bit blunt to me.

BUT in all honesty, the all-American spaghetti and meatballs is not exactly authentic Italian anyways. Sure, there’s polpette in southern Italy. And I have been to Italy many, many times. Never have I been to a local, authentic restaurant that served meatballs in tomato sauce with spaghetti – have you? I’d love to know (food nerd over here)!

But hey, this dish is delicious. And that’s all I have to say on that matter ?

Ingredients you’ll need

Ingredient notes

• You don’t HAVE to use lean ground beef, youcan also use regular ground beef– a higher fat percentage will still be OK since the meatballs end up in a sauce, they’ll just taste very rich. You can also swap in ground turkey if you prefer, we do it all the time. (I even haveSpaghetti and Turkey Meatballs, that’s how much I like that swap.)
• Instead of using dried parsley and garlic powder, you can also use chopped fresh parsley and freshly minced garlic. I prefer using garlic powder so my kids can’t complain about bits of garlic in their meatballs. And I use dried parsley because I only have fresh in the spring, when it grows out in the garden!
• If youdon’t want to cook with wine,you can just use some broth (or even water in a pinch…) to deglaze the pan.
• If you do want to cook with wine but aren’t sure what kind to use, any dry red wine works well. A Merlot or Pinot Noir would be great.
• I usually only haveregular diced tomatoeson hand, so the sauce is perfectly delicious with those. But if you have fire roasted ones, they’ll add even more depth!
• Andif you don’t have any tomato sauce handy,try combining about ⅔ cup water with ⅓ cup tomato paste.

Step by step photos

1) Add all meatball ingredients to a bowl and 2) mix to 3) combine.

4) Shape into firm meatballs, then 5) bake.

6) Sauté onion, stir in tomato paste and herbs. 7) Pour in red wine to 8) deglaze the pan.

9) Add remaining tomato sauce ingredients, then 10) stir in the meatballs and finish in the oven.

Recipe tips

To make the meatballs

• there’s no need to combine or beat any ingredients separately – just throw all the ingredients in a bowl!
• use a hand mixer with the hook attachments to combine the meat mix – it’s quick, easy and mess-free
• if you hate touching raw meat, wear disposable rubber gloves to roll the meatballs
• use a cookie scoop to scoop the meat mix, that way you’ll have even meatballs

> We prefer smaller meatballs.I just can’t wrap my head around “dinner sized” meatballs. They’re basically mini meatloaves, no? I use about 2 – 3 teaspoons of meat mix per meatball, so keep that in mind when making this recipe.

If you choose to make large meatballs, they’ll obviously need more time to cook and there will be less meatballs than you can see in the photos.(If you need video instructions for the exact steps to make meatballs,see this post on how to make meatballs from scratch!)

Sauce

Lid on or lid off?If you put a lid on the skillet in the oven or not depends entirely on your personal preferences. Adding a lid will leave the sauce on the thinner side, while baking uncovered will make for a thicker, chunkier but also richer sauce. Your call!

Personally, I like the thicker sauce better.If you like, you can sprinkle grated parmesan over the meatballs in the sauce before baking them.

Freezer instructions

You should freeze the sauce and cooked meatballs in separate containers, so the meatballs don’t get soggy while thawing. Just place them together in your freezer in separate containers as a little meal kit and you’ll be ready for those busy weeknights!

Make sure to label the bag with name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months).

Defrost in the fridge overnight, then gently reheat the meatballs in the sauce until piping hot all the way through.

We make these all the time: They’re easy, comforting and relatively healthy. While meatballs often get a bad reputation, they’re really not awful for you if you’re making them from scratch, serve them in a tomato-based sauce and eat a salad on the side. This is such a simple, hearty family meal – a dinner win for sure!

Serving suggestions

I recommend using a long, slim pasta shape with meatballs for adults. Spaghetti, Capellini, Fettuccine… All delicious! For my children, spaghetti are way too messy, ha! So for them I always make something fun but short – rigatoni are their favorite, and very delicious with meatballs. We also have a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side.

If you’re looking for other side dish ideas than spaghetti, check out my posts onside dish ideas for meatballsOR even more specifically where I answerwhat sides fo well with spaghetti and meatballs– lots of great ideas ?

More meatballs

PSIf you try this recipe, please leavea review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.

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