Meatballs are one of my all-time favorite foods. They are super versatile because you can swap out different meats and different flavorings and make something entirely new with the same methods. These meatballs are super traditional, made with a mix of pork, beef and veal. They are great straight out of the oven, in your favorite sauce, served up with pasta, or in a sandwich!
The first thing you will do when making the meatballs is to cook the onions and garlic in a pan with some olive oil. I learned this trick from Anne Burrell and now I use it in every single meatball and meatloaf that I make. It is such a simple first step but it adds so much flavor and moisture to the end product. You might think you can just skip this, but don’t! It really is a game-changer.
Once you have finished that first step, you will let your onion and garlic mixture cool down while you assemble everything else. Once your onions are cooled, add them to the bowl with the other ingredients. And from here, it’s just a matter of getting your hands dirty a little bit to squish everything together in a bowl! The next key is adding a bit of water to your mix. This will add some additional moisture to your meatballs so they turn out super tender.
You want the onions softened but with little to no color 
Meatball mix with the water about to be incorporated 
Formed meatballs
A few notes on the meatball mix:
- I prefer to use Pecorino cheese over Parmesan. I prefer the flavor of it and I love the saltiness. If you prefer Parmesan or that’s what you have on hand, definitely use it! But you might want to add some additional salt since it doesn’t have the same saltiness as Pecorino.
- I like to eat these meatballs plain straight out of the oven or with just a bit of marinara, so the flavors really shine through. If you want to add them to a pot of sauce or eat with pasta or in a sandwich, you may want to up your salt and Italian seasoning so the flavors don’t get too muddled.
I keep it really easy by just baking these in the oven, flipping once to get some nice color on both sides. I cook them for a little over 20 minutes, flipping at the 15 minute mark. But I make my meatballs on the bigger side, so if you make yours smaller, adjust the timing accordingly. From there, you can transfer them to your favorite sauce, eat them plain, or even freeze them. But whatever you do, DO NOT and I mean DO NOT, forget to scrape up all of the browned bits. Those bits are so flavorful!! They really are the best so don’t miss out on them!
Flip the meatballs when they have nice brown bottoms 
After flipping all of them 
Served up in sauce
The Best Meatballs
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb meatball mix This is generally a mix of equal parts beef, pork, and veal. You can also buy 1/2 lb of each separately. If you can’t find some of these ingredients, a good substitute is a mix of 1lb beef and 0.5lb italian sausage)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 large garlic clove (or 2 small) minced
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt or more to taste
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes or more to taste
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup grated Pecorino cheese or Parmesan (but you might want to add some salt!)
- 3/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs or regular breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
- 1/4 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Coat a medium sized pan with the olive oil and add the onion. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions are softened and have little to no color.
- Add the garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring frequently, for 1 more minute. Set aside this mixture to cool (you can just stick it in the fridge!) while you prepare the rest of the meatballs.
- Combine all of the other ingredients except for the water (ground meat, eggs, cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, Italian seasoning) in a large bowl. Add the cooled onion mixture and squish it all together with your hands until a uniform mix has formed.
- Pecorino is really salty cheese so I don’t add additional salt, but if you are using Parmesan or just like things a little saltier, add about 1/4-1/2 tsp more salt and the 1/2 cup water. Squish the mixture together until all of the water has been incorporated.
- The mixture will be very moist but should hold together well. Form 18-20 equal sized meatballs and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. The parchment paper will make clean up super easy, but if you don’t have any, don’t worry about it! you can use tin foil instead. You don’t want to tightly pack the meatballs, so try to be as gentle as you can when you are forming the meatballs. If you notice that the meatballs aren’t staying together too well, you can add a bit more breadcrumbs. I find that with some breadcrumbs that are very finely ground, I need to use closer to 1 cup.
- Bake for 15 minutes and then use tongs to flip each meatball over. This will make sure you get a nice sear on each side. Bake for 7 more minutes, or until the meatballs are fully cooked through.
- These taste amazing plain, so I always end up eating some straight out of the oven. Whoops! But you can also add to your favorite sauce. Make sure you scrape off all of the little browned bits from the parchment paper and add them to your meatballs. These little caramelized bits are the best part! Serve them topped with more cheese, on their own, or over some pasta! You can also freeze these meatballs for later use, they keep very well in the freezer.
