The Best Authentic Italian Meatballs Ever

A bowl piled high with an easy Italian Meatballs recipe.

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The Best Authentic Italian Meatballs Ever

Tender, flavorful and easy to make I am not exaggerating when I tell you this is the Best Authentic Italian Meatballs Recipe Ever! This recipe is to be made with Pasta Sauce.

Prep Time10

Cook Time2

Total Time2 10

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Italian Meatballs

Servings: meatballs

Calories: 116kcal

Author: Alisa Infanti

Ingredients

2 lb lean ground beef
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup fresh mint, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

To a large bowl, add the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, mint, baking powder, salt and pepper and mix to combine.
Add the ground beef, eggs, garlic and milk to the bowl. Use your hands to blend the dry ingredients into the meat just until combined. Do not overmix. The meatball mixture should feel sticky and almost like a paste. If too dry and crumbly add more milk a little at a time to moisten.
Roll two tablespoons of the meatball mixture into balls and place them on a parchment-lined or non-stick baking sheet. You will need to do this in two batches for the full recipe.
Broil on high for 5-7 minutes per side or until the meatballs are browned.
Transfer the browned meatballs to a large pot of pasta sauce and simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours with the sauce to cook through.
Serve cooked meatballs as a main dish with sauce or over pasta.

Notes

Nutrition calculation based on using 85% lean ground beef.

Storage and Freezing:

If you don't plan to make sauce the day you make the meatballs you can let the meatballs cool completely after brewing them store them in an airtight container in the fridge for a day or two or freeze them for up to 3 months.

Then when you are ready to make the sauce pop them in the pot and let simmer for 1 1/2 -2 hours to cook with the sauce.

Storing Cooked Meatballs

To store the cooked meatballs you can do it one of two ways.

The first way is to store the Italian meatball recipe with the sauce. To do this split the sauce recipe and meatballs into 3-4 servings in a large container. The meatballs and sauce are good in the fridge for up to 3 days but usually when I do this we have pasta and meatballs the day I make this recipe and then I freeze the servings in resealable containers to eat over the next 3 months.

The second option is to scoop out the meatballs from the sauce and store the meatballs and sauce separately in freezer-safe containers. I do recommend adding sauce to the container with the meatballs though because you will always want sauce to serve with these homemade Italian meatballs.

Nutrition