Meatballs are a classic Italian-American dish that are simple to make and a definite crowd pleaser. This recipe is a favorite in my family, takes only 10 minutes to prep, and is so flavorful. You’ll want to make this again and again!
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Classic Italian meatballs are a delicious dish that are perfect for the whole family. Who can resist a ball of tender meat, sitting atop a pile of fresh spaghetti? There are songs about such a beautiful sight!
Every Christmas my big Italian family gets together to prepare recipes that have been passed down for generations, and this is one of them. Making these delicious, tender meatballs reminds me of family.
Made with simple ingredients, this Soft Meatballs Recipe comes together quickly and is sure to be one your entire family will love too!
Recipe Origins
When Americans picture Italian cuisine, the image that comes to mind for most is a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs. But in Italy it can be rare to find meatballs on the menu! This dish is actually more of an Italian-American classic.
Meatballs may have come from a popular ancient recipe called polpette. Polpette originated in the Roman Empire and was mostly a simple dish made by peasants. It is essentially a meatball, but the type of meat used varies from beef, chicken and ground veal to even fish.
Polpette are much smaller than meatballs. Some are even as small as marbles. Rather than being served in a pasta sauce, these balls of meat were usually served as a main course in a light broth.
When Italian immigrants came to the United States in the late 1800s, they had the opportunity to earn more money and began to desire meals with more meat.
Italians discovered beef was fairly inexpensive and paired well with a large helping of pasta. Thus, the meatball was celebrated and has been shared for generations since.
Why Make This Recipe?
- Affordable: The ingredients for these authentic Italian meatballs are very simple. You don’t need anything fancy to put them together.
- Quick: If you have the ingredients on hand, you can cook up these juicy homemade meatballs in less than an hour, which makes them great for a quick weeknight meal.
- Comfort Food: Imagine being sad or sick and filling up on a hearty bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. It’s a delicious comfort food dish full of great flavor that everyone can love!
What Do I Need To Make This Recipe?
Ingredients
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the recipe at the bottom for quantities.
Meatball Ingredients
- Ground Beef Chuck: The fat adds more flavor to this dish and makes the meatballs very soft. If you want to cut down on fat, you could use a leaner beef.
- Bread Crumbs: Eggs and bread crumbs hold the balls together. I use plain breadcrumbs for this recipe, but you could use seasoned bread crumbs if that’s all you have. If you don’t have bread crumbs on hand, you can dry some bread and put it in a food processor to make fresh bread crumbs.
- Parmesan Cheese: Grated
- Spices: Salt, parsley, basil, garlic powder, black pepper. Dried spices are preferred but fresh is fine too
Cooking Ingredients
The cooking ingredients listed below are for if you are simmering your meatballs in marinara sauce. You can also cook your meatballs by baking them. If you are baking your meatballs, you will not need the below ingredients:
- Marinara Sauce: I used already-jarred marinara sauce to make my meatballs. You can also use marinara sauce that you are cooking on the stove at the time of simmering your meatballs. In that case, you will not need any extra water.
- Water: To thin out the already jarred marinara sauce
Tools:
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Baking Sheet or Large Pot: Depending on cooking method
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1: Make the Meatballs
In a large bowl, use your hands or a wooden spoon to combine the meatball ingredients together until completely combined.
Use your hands to divide the meat into 10 portions. Then roll each portion into a round meatball. Follow the instructions below based on your desired cooking method.
Step 2: Cook the Meatballs
Option 1: Bake
To bake your meatballs, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place the meatballs on an ungreased, unlined, rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Option 2: Boil
To boil your meatballs, add the spaghetti sauce and water in a large pot. Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium high. Heat the sauce until it begins to simmer.
Once the sauce is simmering, add the raw meatballs into the sauce. Make sure there is enough sauce to cover the meatballs completely. Put the lid back on the pot and allow the sauce to simmer for about 25-30 minutes, stirring once (gently) about halfway through the cooking time.
Cook until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 3: Serve
Serve the meatballs how desired. I love them served the classic way: Over spaghetti noodles and smothered in marinara sauce. They are also great topped with fresh parsley and fresh basil!
Cooking your Meatballs While Making Homemade Sauce
This is a great recipe to make if you are also cooking pasta sauce the same day. My grandmother used to make a pot of homemade pasta sauce and add the meatballs near the end. In the case that you are simmering homemade sauce, you do not need to add water.
When my family makes sauce, we allow it to simmer for four hours. We add the meatballs into the sauce at the beginning of its simmering point, and continue to cook the meatballs for the entire 4 hours. They still turn out just as tender!
If you are not making homemade pasta sauce, you can use the jarred sauce method with water added (detailed above). The water is to thin out the already-ready sauce so that it can simmer for another 30 minutes and maintain its good texture. Alternatively, you can substitute chicken broth for the water.
Searing Your Meatballs
Many chefs recommend searing meatballs in a little bit of olive oil before cooking, whether baking or boiling.
If you like a bit more smoky flavor and a little crisp, searing your meatballs in a skillet on the stove on medium heat before cooking does add that. I feel like not searing them results in soft meatballs while searing may lead to a more dry and rough meatball.
Sizing Your Meatballs
The meatballs in this recipe are much larger than the standard meatball that you buy pre-made in the grocery store. They are usually around the same size as an orange.
If you want smaller meatballs, you can definitely make that happen! In that case, you might be able to get 20 meatballs out of this recipe. Simply form your meat into mounds the size of golf balls and then hand roll until they form a sphere shape.
Expert Tips
- Boiling the meatballs in the sauce is my preferred method. It flavors your sauce really well and also makes the meatballs more tender.
- The meatballs will still be tender when baked, but the outside will be a little crispier than if they were boiled. Some people prefer that crispiness on the outside.
- Do not overmix your meatball mixture. This will prematurely melt the fat in the meat and create tough meatballs.
- You can use any ground meat for this recipe but of course it will change the flavor drastically. Beef is most traditional (my specific favorite is ground chuck) but you could also use ground pork.
FAQs
If you have seen Italian meatballs and homestyle meatballs in your grocery store’s freezer section, the difference between the two is minimal.
In general, American meatballs are usually larger than Italian or Dutch meatballs. Italian meatballs are made with different spices than Dutch meatballs and cooked in a different way.
The most likely cause of meatballs that won’t stick together is too much or too little bread crumbs. Too much bread crumbs will make your mixture too dry while too little will make your meatballs fall apart.
If your meatballs are falling apart as you cook them try adjusting the amount of bread crumbs next time.
For some recipes, yes! Simmering your meatballs for too long may result in them being tough or becoming mushy and falling apart as they soak up too much liquid from your sauce. You want your meatballs to be fork tender but not falling apart for the end result.
Luckily, this recipe was specifically developed to be simmered in sauce for up to four hours, so it is hard to simmer these bad boys for too long. However, it is possible, so make sure to keep an eye on them! If you are not making your sauce fresh, they will be fully cooked within 25-30 minutes, so there is no need to simmer your meatballs for much longer than that.
Did you like this Soft Meatballs Recipe? If so, make sure to check out these other recipes I picked out just for you:
- Frikadeller (Danish Meatballs)
- Thai Inspired Meatball Soup
- Easy Tiramisu Recipe
- How to Make Homemade Pasta
Soft Meatballs Recipe
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Baking Sheet or Large Pot
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients
- 1 lb ground chuck
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup plain bread crumbs
- 3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, heaping
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp dried Parsley
- ½ tsp dried Basil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
Cooking Ingredients
- 96 oz marinara sauce, 4 24 oz jars, optional
- 2 cups water, optional
Instructions
- Make the Meatballs
- In a large bowl, use your hands or a wooden spoon to combine the meatball ingredients together until completely combined.
- Use your hands to divide the meat into 10 portions. Then roll each portion into a round meatball. Follow the cooking instructions below based on your desired method.
- Cook the Meatballs
- Option 1: Bake
- To bake your meatballs, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place the meatballs on an ungreased, unlined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Option 2: Boil
- To boil your meatballs, add the pasta sauce and water in a large pot. Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium high. Heat the sauce until it begins to simmer.
- Once the sauce is simmering, add the raw meatballs into the sauce. Make sure there is enough sauce to cover the meatballs completely. Put the lid back on the pot and allow the sauce to simmer for about 25-30 minutes, stirring once (gently) about halfway through the cooking time.
- Cook until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Notes
- Ground Beef Chuck: The fat adds more flavor to this dish and makes the meatballs very soft. If you want to cut down on fat, you could use a leaner beef.
- Bread Crumbs: Eggs and bread crumbs hold the balls together. I use plain breadcrumbs for this recipe, but you could use seasoned bread crumbs if that’s all you have. If you don’t have bread crumbs on hand, you can dry some bread and put it in a food processor to make fresh bread crumbs.
- Parmesan Cheese: Grated
- Spices: Salt, parsley, basil, garlic powder, black pepper. Dried spices are preferred but fresh is fine too
- Marinara Sauce: I used already-jarred marinara sauce to make my meatballs. You can also use marinara sauce that you are cooking on the stove at the time of simmering your meatballs. In that case, you will not need any extra water.
- Water: To thin out the already jarred marinara sauce
- Boiling the meatballs in the sauce is my preferred method. It flavors your sauce really well and also makes the meatballs more tender.
- The meatballs will still be tender when baked, but the outside will be a little crispier than if they were boiled. Some people prefer that crispiness on the outside.
- Do not overmix your meatball mixture. This will prematurely melt the fat in the meat and create tough meatballs.
- You can use any ground meat for this recipe but of course it will change the flavor drastically. Beef is most traditional (my specific favorite is ground chuck) but you could also use ground pork.
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