When I was a kid, the only time we ever had meatballs was with spaghetti or in albondigas soup. It never occurred to me that one could simply have meatballs with sauce, until I wandered into a restaurant in San Francisco and ordered some Italian meatballs, as an appetizer, or so I thought. To me, meatballs were small little things and three of them would have made a lovely starter for the more substantial entré to follow. Hah! My eyes practically fell out of their sockets when the meatballs arrived. They were almost the size of baseballs. Holy moly. But they were fabulous, and it just meant I had more food to share with my friends.

These meatballs aren’t quite the size of baseballs though they could be if you wanted them to. Actually you could make them any size you wanted. They’re tender, loaded with herbs and cheese, a mixture of ground beef and pork, and covered with a classic tomato sauce. Enjoy!
Italian Meatballs Recipe
We've used equal amounts of ground beef and ground pork. You could also use a third each of ground beef, pork and veal.
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 pound ground beef (at least 16 percent fat)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2/3 cup milk (whole or 2 percent)
- 3 slices of white bread, crusts removed (about 3 ounces)
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano or marjoram
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- About 1 cup of flour for dusting
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 2 1/2 cups (24 ounces) of tomato sauce
Tomato Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 3/4 cup finely chopped onions
- 3/4 cup finely chopped carrots
- 3/4 cup finely chopped celery
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 28 oz. can crushed or whole tomatoes, including the juice, or 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method

1 Start with the tomato sauce, which will simmer while you prepare the meatballs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and parsley. Stir to coat with the oil, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and cooked through. Remove the cover, add the garlic, and increase the heat to medium high. Cook the garlic for half a minute, then add the tomatoes (if using whole canned, break up with your fingers as you add them to the pan.) Add the tomato paste and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a low simmer, reduce the heat to low and let cook uncovered until thickened while you prepare the meatballs, 15 to 30 minutes. Purée in a blender, or push through a food mill for a smooth consistency. Adjust seasonings.


2 Heat the milk in a small pot until steamy. Turn off the heat, tear the bread into little pieces and soak it in the milk until it partially dissolves. Mash it until you get something that resembles a paste. Turn it out onto a plate to let it cool.


3 In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, ricotta cheese, grated parmesan, eggs, salt, parsley, oregano, black pepper, garlic cloves and the bread-milk mixture. Mix it well with your hands until it barely combines. Don't overwork the mixture or it will become tough. It is OK to have some discernable bits of bread or meat in the mix; better that than overworked meatballs.


4 Wet your hands and form the meatballs. A traditional size for this sort of meatball is 2-3 inches across, but you can make them any size you want. Once you roll the meatball in your hands, roll it in the flour to give it a good coating. Set each one on a baking sheet as you work. You might need to rinse your hands a few times as you make the meatballs.


5 When all the meatballs are formed, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the meatballs on at least two sides. Don't worry about the center getting cooked through, as you will finish these in the sauce.


6 Once all the meatballs are browned, arrange them in the sauce, turning each one over in the sauce to coat. Cover the pot and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes. Serve with the sauce and pasta or crusty bread. Sprinkle with a little chopped parsley for garnish if you want.
Yield: Makes about 16 meatballs. Serves 8.








Leave it to an Italian Restaurant to serve an appetizer the size of an entree:-). These look wonderful. I love that you use carrots in your sauce for some extra flavor. Soaking the bread in the warm milk must produce a super moist meatball. I will try this recipe next time we want to make some meatballs!
Batter, batter, batter, batter UP. Meatballs in my mouth.
Y-U-M.
These. Look. Fantastic.
I’m a meatball snob — I never order them out because they’re never like my Mom’s and I’m always disappointed. I am going to have to try this recipe…this weekend! I am envisioning that this recipe may be part of Christmas dinner this year….
Meatballs are one of my specialties. I make 16 large balls using 2.25lbs 80% lean ground beef and 0.75lbs sweet Italian sausage for the pork component. I use two-three times the amount of garlic as this recipe and half a cup of chopped parsley. The other thing to do is incorporate two onions chopped fine, sauteed until golden and fairly dry, in a little EVOO with half the garlic you will use and half to one tsp of crushed red pepper flakes. Use a couple of eggs to hold it all together and then bake them at 475F on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes or well browned. If you don’t have riccotta double or triple up on the Parmesan cheese.
Incorporate the sweet Italian sausage with all the other ingredients before adding the beef to make the kneading together easier.
I love the side-by-side shot of the frying meatballs next to the bubbling red sauce.
I’ve also had meatballs as an appetizer, I think they are called polpette in Italian. Mine were really small and just tossed in parmesan cheese….very good!
There used to be a little Italian restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, MN. It was called the Venice Cafe (original, eh?). Anyhow they serve the most incredible “meatball dip”…two large Italian meatballs with tomato sauce served with a white thick crusted sliced bread. Yum. This makes me think of that…and then.
I make what I call “lazy Mama” meatballs. Instead of rolling them out, I press the mixture into a pan, bake, and cut into cubes. Not as cute as balls, but much quicker, and more secure for kids to keep on a plate! I love your site – it is my go-to for great recipes.
I’m an inexperienced cook (but learning), so please forgive me if this is a dumb question – what’s the reason for rolling the meatballs in flour?
The meatballs will brown better. ~Elise
This looks delicious. Makes me crave a good meatball.
These look so good! I have a bunch of grass fed ground beef in my freezer and don’t have a place to get good pork. Would it work with all beef?
You could try it with all beef. If you do, let us know how it turns out for you. ~Elise
I’ve never had meatballs before — only the vegetarian version, but tomato sauce with added ingredients.
These definitely got me drooling :D
Do you ever need taste testers in your kitchen? Lol. Sans wheat I would love this!
Hi Elise, I would love to make a double batch and freeze some, but I’ve never tried freezing meatballs. Any ideas to ensure success?
I’ve never frozen them either. Suggestions from readers welcome. ~Elise
Hi Elise. What are your thoughts on the use of almond flour in this recipe, in place of bread? P.S. thank you for all that you do; I tackle your recipes with confidence and no doubt of their quality :)
I think the flavor would be weird. If you are trying to avoid carbs, I would just double up on the ricotta. If you are trying to avoid gluten, I would use gluten-free bread. ~Elise
I just made Italian meatballs the other day and very similar to yours with lots of ricotta in them – but i am going to try your recipe – these looks wonderful!
In answer to Katie, I freeze meatballs all the time , before adding to sauce. I have never dipped meatballs in flour, I just get the oil nice and hot before I start frying them. My family recipe is similiar but we never use ricotta, only parmesan or romano. Perhaps the soft ricotta cheese is why you need the flour to get a crisp meatball.
On freezing meatballs…
I would cook them first, let them mostly cool, then freeze them under a vacuum seal (food saver) if you have one. Otherwise, in a ziplock and try to get most of the air out. If in a ziplock, they should stay good for a month or so. If a vacuum seal, probably 6 months.
I love spaghetti and meatballs, I might try this soon… My question is, how would I adjust the recipe w/o any cheese?
Thanks!
I would use more bread soaked in milk to compensate for the lack of cheese. Or soaked in stock if you are trying to avoid all milk products. You’ll also need more salt to account for not using Parmesan. ~Elise
I used to make meatballs with all beef-my mom does and they’re great, but once I incorporated pork I never went back. I made a batch this weekend and used the homemade breadcrumbs for the first time and loved them. I use at least 4-5 garlic cloves and Locatelli cheese and don’t coat them in flour (they still get nice and browned), and I add an extra egg for more moisture. So good. I HAVE to try adding ricotta next time.
My buddy’s trick to making sure the meatball mixture is flavored correctly is to fry a small “flatty” of the mix, tasting, and then adjusting accordingly.
Loved this! Had it for dinner last night. Even my daughter approved. Looking forward to trying the next one.
Like this recipe but being pure Sicilian…I have another recipe some may like…I use instead of beef or pork pure ground turkey…less fat but adding ingredients to the mix one would never know
One and a half pounds of ground turkey
One onion minced
two cloves of garlic minced
three tablespoons of good wine white or red or mixed as long as it tastes good
two slices of bread macerated in a quarter cup of milk
1 T of sweet basil
1 T of parsley
I/2 T of oregano
Salt and pepper…I add for an added kick some hot red pepper optional
one quarter cup of parmesan
three tablespoons of good olive oil
refrigerate the mix for three hours or overnight
make a small patty sautee and taste add extra salt pepper as needed
after adjusting seasonings place on a tray in a 400 degree oven
for twenty
minutes done add to your favorite sauce simmer for another ten to fifteen minutes…serve over your favorite pasta sauce add your favorite cooked pasta extra cheese hot peppers
mangia!!
I made these last night. I only had ground beef (91% fat) and they came out wonderful. I usually use higher % fat beef, but the amount of liquid and the searing really keeps them moist. Very moist, in fact. I’ve never put ricotta in the meatballs before and I really liked it.
I freeze meatballs all the time. After they’re cooked, I put them on a tray to freeze them, and then put them into gallon ziploc bags once they’re frozen. I make a large batch and just remove how many I need. I thaw them in the fridge overnight, then just simmer them in the sauce to heat them up. I make mine pretty small though…I usually get 100 from 3 lbs of meat.
I’ve never used pork in my meatballs, I’m trying that next time!
Looks sooo delicious….and it doesn’t help that it’s lunchtime and I’m famished!!! I must definitely make this for my girls…they will love it…thanks….
Great idea for dinner! Thanks.
similar to what we do here in rome except nobody i know uses ricotta (why not tho???)….only parmigiano. we do minced beef, a bit of minced pork and maybe even a bit of minced veal, bread soaked in milk and then wrung out, lots of chopped parsley, eggs, the cheese (parmigiano), salt, pepper and thats about it. we make them very small, size of a large walnut….fry them..no flour and then add them to a tomato sauce (mine is just garlic, tomatoes, lots of basil, salt and pepper and if i’m in the mood a bit of peperocino). I cook them for quite a while…like I’m doing a meat sauce so they get really tender.
if my tomatoes are very acidy, I would add a carrot….but normally I do it from tinned italian tomatoes which are fairly sweet.
my mother in law made the typical tomato sauce of onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, basil and then added her meatballs. yummy too.
the mother of a friend of mine who comes from northern italy used to make a normal tomato sauce but not frying anything…everything thrown in the pot…tomatoes, onions, celery, carrot, basil and just let that boil then she put in the meatballs WITHOUT frying them first and I remember it as being very good.
you can freeze the meatballs once fried. just let them cool and put them in freezer bag and add to a sauce whenever.
I have NEVER been successful at meatballs and I’ve tried many times. However I’ve never had a failure with your recipes so I’m back in the meatball business.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I never met a homemade meatball I didn’t like.
Can I just add your iPhone app has been one of the best time-savers of the year for me. I can pull up a recipe in the grocery store and there are the ingredients and I can scan the instructions. Beginning to love technology.
Thanks Lillianne! For those who might be reading this, if you have an iPhone or Android phone, you can point your phone browser to http://simplyrecipes.com/m/ to see the phone optimized view of the site. More info here. ~Elise
I’m a fan of the meatball as its own thing. I’d love to know what restaurant was the inspiration for these?
Too long ago to remember! ~Elise
in my eternal quest for the perfect meatball, i have yet to reach meatball nirvana. i will make these, fair lady, and let you know of the results forthwith. this just might be….the “one”.
For you Jonathan, I think you may need to add some bacon to these meatballs. Just sayin…. ~Elise
Om my goodness these look really delicious. My brothers have been on a spaghetti meatball craze lately and my mom has been trying to accommadate that by making a bunch of different kinds of meatballls. I’m definitely going to tell her to try this one!
My nonagenarian mother in law has never given me her recipe for her delicious meatballs despite numerous requests so I could make them for her son and grandchildren but now thanks to your generosity, I will try these as they sound delish. We were never allowed in the kitchen to watch and although he now likes my attempts at replicating hers, it’s time to try something completely different and start our own traditions LOL! And her gravy recipe, that too is going to the grave, I will never understand some women and their secret recipes, oh well, in the words of Tony Soprano, what’ya gonna do?
We tried the recipe this evening, it turned out to be spectacular! Thanks!
thank you, Elise … just finished eating a warm slice of pear pie but now wish I had room for some meatballs. You might try using panko crumbs instead of soft bread …. my holiday best wishes to you ….
midwest gal: I’m with you on this “secret recipe” phobia. Cannot, for the life of me, understand where the secrecy stuff comes from. They just don’t seem to realize that requests for their recipes are–more often than not–compliments, and not attempts to steal their knowledge. Yet, every family has at least one, somewhere.
wow those look like perfect meatballs, I always make mine with turkey and I fill them with cheese
These looked very good, so I made them. They were fantastic. My husband loves meatballs and he declared these to be his favorite. I used a two cloves of garlic instead of one. Love them thank you.
This is one of our favorite meals! I serve it with grilled asparagus or spinach…YUM!
These are very similar to the ones I make- DELICIOUS! A great tip I have learned throughout my meatball making years:
For moist and flavourful meatballs, rather than adding milk or any other liquid ingredient- add some of the sauce you have prepared!
Also, rather than browning the meatballs, add them to heated sauce and simmer for about an hour. Adds amazing flavour to the sauce and the meatballs turn out tender and delicious.
Just made these and they were pretty good. I might have done something wrong since I expected them to have a lot more “meatiness”.
Thoughts on adding a bit of fennel seed, pancetta or rehydrated porcini?
I also tried eating 3 and… I’m Thanksgiving stuffed.
Meatballs are so hard to find delicioso, I picked up the ingreds yesterday and make yours today. But, since you already did such a fine job of presenting your recipe, I won’t hijack this posting with my recipes or changes I might make while preparing because that is just an insult to the Chef.
Hi John, thank you for your consideration, but just know that it is perfectly okay to leave whatever modifications you have made in the comments. I find that information quite interesting and helpful. Recipes are just guidelines in my opinion, and I love to know how people have experimented with a recipe. ~Elise
I made these tonight, and they were awesome. Served with just a simple salad and some warm bread, they made a perfect Sunday supper. I got nine balls of about 3″ diameter.
I like to mix ground meats with a serving fork instead of my hands. I find that by sort of fluffing as I mix, burgers, meatloaves and meat balls end up nice and tender.
I made these this weekend, only I doubled the ricotta and eliminated the breadcrumbs and milk, as you suggested since my son is gluten intolerant. They were AMAZING!
Usually I don’t make a new recipe when I’m having guests over, but I always have such great success with your recipes that I went ahead and tried these and served them to my family-in-law. They were a hit!
What can I use instead of the cheese? My husband does not like cheese :(
More bread and milk, and you’ll need to add some fat too, perhaps some olive oil. ~Elise
I am not the biggest meatball lover, but these looked so good I had to try them. And OH MY GOSH!!! I made these last night and they have converted me! These are the BEST meatballs ever! Thank you for such a great recipe!
I made this recipe for when my daughter came in from NY. They were fabulous. Best meatballs I ever made. I did add some chopped veal and used multigrain crusty bread in lieu of white bread. Did cut the crusts off.
I enjoyed the sauce as well, but added some red pepper flakes to spice it up a tad. I even could have added more(maybe due to age of pepper)
I was going to serve it with mashed potatoes but since my daughter isn’t fond of them(I love them) I used some penne and served as a small side dish with the meatball atop of the penne. Also served sauteed spinach in olive oil, garlic and slivered almonds. Had left overs and made meatball sandwiches with sauteed onions and red bell peppers. Great stuff. Thanks for the recipe.
hi-tech grandma is still trying to learn to use iphone for something more than taking pix and making callis. going to the site you recommended to see if I can do it. would be wonderful when in the supermarket. thanks so much elise and lillianne.
Made this recipe today – absolutely delicious. Thank you so much. If you don’t mind, I added 1 tsp sugar to the sauce.
Cheers, Ann
I forgiot to mentiion that I am allergic to milk, so instead I used So Delicious cocnut milk beverage, left our the ricotta, but did add 2 Tbsp Parmesan. Mmmmm mmmmm. Really tasty.
Cheers, Ann
Hey Elise,
I just had to let you know that these are the only meatballs I can say that I actually loved both the flavor and texture of it as it rolled around in my mouth! I had given up making meatballs at home and i even avoided ordering them off of menus. As of late they were just sounding good, so I went to the only place I can trust “Simply Recipes” I love and use your site often and without disappointment. After 6+ years of meatball hiatus I took a chance with this recipe! DELICIOUS! I followed the recipe exactly, minus the specification on the fat content of the meats. I used low-fat ground beef (sirloin) and low-fat ground pork, as this was what I had, these meatballs were the moistest, most flavorful balls of meat I have ever had period! Thanks again for sharing your impeccable pallet with the rest of us!
Other than adding some grated pecorino (in addition to the romano and parm) & a little cayenne, we pretty much stuck to the recipe, and man, are these some fantastic meatballs! My hubby loves meatball subs and that’s what we did with them. Mamma Mia! Big and juicy and saucy, the yum factor is off the charts! Thanks, Elise! Yet another Simply Recipes keeper! (might as well give away all my cookbooks…lol)
Elise
As a follow-up to my earlier post. When we make meatballs we are getting to the point where we will make two 3 lb batches. Here’s why: In addition to using them immediately we freeze them for later use. One of the later uses is to make a lovely meatball based lasagna. We’ll take 2-3 meatballs and incorporate them into the sauce we make and them crumble about 1-1.5 lbs of them in between the layers of the lasagna noodles. Makes for a unique way to “beef” up our traditional lasagna.
Just made this recipe and seemed like i didn’t have enough sauce. Where did i go wrong?
Don’t know. You should have had plenty of sauce. ~Elise
Hi Elise,
I would like to try this recipe for this Christmas. I m put up in Saudi Arabia and i dont get pork. Do I have any alternative for pork?
Try it with ground turkey. ~Elise
I also felt like I could have done with more sauce. Maybe I’ll add in more tomatoes next time. Or maybe my pot wasn’t wide enough.
Anyway, the meatballs themselves were delicious. They took a while to cook through, but it was worth the wait!
I just discovered your blog a couple of weeks ago, upon seeing a post (by Jora, at Domestic Reflections) regarding your simple turkey method/recipe (which I referred my mom to last week, and the turkey came out perfect!). Yesterday, I made your lemon chicken recipe- DELICIOUS. And now, I am trying to decide on an appetizer to bring to a book club holiday party tomorrow that travels well and can be made ahead of time. I would love to make these(!!), but just wanted to get your opinion. Would you suggest making them, browning the sides and then transferring them (with the sauce) into a slow cooker? I have a function to attend with my daughter for a few hours right before leaving for my party, so I won’t be able to spend time prepping immediately before! Plus, my slow cooker is a “travel” one. Sorry for the extremely LONG comment, but I’d really appreciate your opinion! (and so happy to have found your site!…downloading the app now!)
Hm. No idea how it will work out that way. I do think the sauce is best when made right before serving. But if you try it in a slow cooker, please let us know how it goes for you! ~Elise
Wonderful recipe. I make about 24x 1-1/2 inch meatballs. Served with gnocchi for dinner on on french bread for a lunch sandwich.
I made this recipe night before last and have been eating it since. I doubled the batch and followed the recipe for the most part. Unfortunately, the carrots I thought would still be good in the fridge were somewhat limpid and I omitted them. On the other hand, I had a bunch of portobello mushrooms that needed to be used and added that to the sauce. Obviously, my sauce was chunkier than that described in the recipe.
Fantastic recipe, but I believe the salt is out of whack. The recipe (at least as I saw it called for a TBSP of salt – so 2 TBSPs for me), but I believe it probably meant only a teaspoon. The meatballs were a little salty. On the advice of several of the commenters, I triple the amount of garlic, both in the sauce and the balls. I can report that my breath is pleasantly horrible. Other than that, this recipe is fantastic and I high;y recommend that you give it a shot.
It’s so much easier to increase the salt in a recipe than reduce it, after you’ve made it. So, I’ve reduced the ingredient amount to 2 teaspoons from 1 Tbsp. That should help. A teaspoon for a pound of meat is a fair ratio in my opinion. Also make sure you are using Kosher salt, which has bigger grains. If you are using table salt, you’ll need to reduce the amount. ~Elise
If I wanted to make these meatballs the main dish in a meal, what would I accompany them with? Any menu ideas?
These are really good meatballs. I also use zucchini along with carrots in my tomato sauce. My husband doesn’t like many new dishes, but this he loves and I will be making it again. It is also really good the next day!!!
Really wonderful recipe. Used plain breadcrumbs soaked in milk for 20 minutes , simmered meatballs for an hour, but otherwise exactly as written. Was a huge hit on Christmas Eve. Thx.
@ Mark re menu ideas:
The meatballs are the star of the show, so you’ll want some simple sides that enhance their deliciousness without distracting. Try cooking up some penne pasta, then toss in butter or olive oil , sprinkle with garlic powder, Italian seasoning and some grated parmesan cheese, toss well, add some chopped Italian flat leaf parsley for the garnish. Any green salad with some Italian dressing or simply oil & vinegar completes the meal nicely. Of course, you’ll want some crusty rolls and a hearty red wine if you want to do it up right. :-) If you’re cooking for a special friend, you can’t go wrong with a candle or two and maybe Andrea Bocelli singing love songs in the background. sigh…I’ll have to do this soon.
Just made these last night – turned out great! The consistency of the meatballs was fantastic. Although they were a little soft and beginning to fall apart during the frying period – next time I might refrigerate them for like 10-15 min before putting them on the skillet to give them some firmness so they can keep their shape. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these meatballs today and they were outstanding. The most tender and moist I ever had. I didn’t have white bread so I used three hot dog rolls trimmed. I’m a fan!
Made these last night and they were the best meatball I have ever made. Thanks for the recipe.