Baked Italian Meatballs with Marinara Sauce

A fan favorite at our family's Italian restaurant, this meatball recipe is crafted with a savory blend of ground beef, mild Italian sausage, fresh herbs, and real garlic bread instead of breadcrumbs.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword meatballs

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 20

Total Time 1

Servings meatballs

Calories 208kcal

Author Sara Garska

Cost $30

Equipment

1 large mixing bowl
1 Small mixing bowl
2 baking pans

Ingredients

4 pounds ground beef
¼ pound mild Italian sausage
2 slices garlic bread crumbled
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
¼ cup onion chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
¼ cup bell pepper chopped
1 TB sweet basil
1 TB parsley flakes
1 TB oregano
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup olive oil
¾ cup parmesan cheese

Marinara Sauce Ingredients

Olive oil
1 cup onions finely chopped
1 TB garlic chopped
2 cans whole tomatoes
Fresh basil to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
1-2 tsp Sugar if needed

Instructions

To Make the Meatballs

In a large bowl, break apart the ground meats with your hands or a fork.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Soak the breadcrumbs in this mixture until needed.
Chop the onion, celery and green pepper and sauté in the olive oil.
Preheat oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with foil.
Add seasonings and parmesan to the ground meat mixture and gently toss.
Combine the ground meats, bread mixture, and vegetables with your hands until everything is incorporated.
Use a scoop to portion out meatballs and form into balls with your hands.
Bake meatballs for about 20 minutes in 350 degree oven until internal temperature is 160

To Make the Marinara Sauce

Sauté the onion in olive oil until tender. Add the chopped garlic for the last 30 seconds of sautéing the onion.
Crush tomatoes by hand and add to the pot.
Add basil, salt, and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes.
Taste and adjust with more salt and pepper if needed. If the sauce tastes too acidic or not quite sweet enough, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar.

Notes

Nutrition information is an estimate only.
This recipe calls for stale garlic toast. We made fresh garlic toast for each meal at the restaurant. We minced fresh garlic and heated it gently with butter. Then we brushed the garlic butter onto thick slices of French bread and toasted the buttered bread in a toaster oven.
If you don’t have stale garlic bread, use the bread or crackers you have on hand and add a teaspoon or so of minced garlic to the sauteed vegetables to cook for about 30 seconds or so.
I used an ice cream scoop to make the meatballs a uniform size and then shaped them by hand.
Ground beef should be cooked to 160 degrees inside. This took 20 minutes in my oven.
Don’t overcrowd the meatballs on the pan or in the oven. You want them to bake and brown, not steam.
After baking, you can store them in some marinara sauce to add even more flavor.
I like to make these a day or two before I need them to allow the flavor to develop.
Freeze any extras for another meal. You’ll be so happy you did when you can pull together an amazing meal, last minute.

Nutrition