Updated on June 26th, 2022
If you’ve been searching the net for the perfect recipe for Italian meatballs, your search has officially come to an end. Look no further because today I have for you the best Italian meatball recipe on the face of this earth.
Now before I continue I already know what your thinking, “but Bobby everyone claims to have the best meatball recipe,” and as true as that may be, these meatballs really are the best!
With their amazing flavor, they are sure to impress anyone, and they are great for eating for a casual dinner or to make on any special occasion. If you’re feeding a large crowd, make sure to make a lot because these are going to disappear.
I usually bake these in the oven, but you can also simmer them in pasta sauce for about 40 minutes and you will be amazed at the perfect texture it gives them. These meatballs can also be pre-made and then frozen, so you can just pull them out of the freezer and cook them whenever you like.
They go great with noodles and pasta sauce topped with mozzarella or parmesan cheese. Enjoy.
Italian Meatball Recipe
Ingredients
- 750 grams of beef or pork mince (you can mix)
- 1/4 cup crushed parmesan cheese
- 1 chicken egg
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons salt (can be less)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano (oregano)
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in one large bowl.
- Mold small meatballs from the mixture. If you are not going to cook them right now, put them in the freezer to cook later.
- Preheat your oven to 175 ° C and place the meatballs on a baking sheet (I used the pizza shape as a baking tray).
- Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
looks like everyone loves these meatballs bobby. I was wondering if you might think these might go well with a bbq sauce? We’re going to have a baby shower and I’m looking for the perfect slowcooked meatball with bbq sauce. I found a recipe for bbq sauce at epicurious and was just wondering if you think this may go well with a good bbq sauce? Heck, you should just do a bbq sauce and meatball recipe!!
Megan – I agree with you on the bbq sauce and meatball recipe! I think these meatballs would go fine with bbq sauce.
these were great meatballs, and they also make wonderful burgers.
I fry mine till browned. then add them to my sauce and then put most of the rendering from the frying pan into the sauce for added flavor.
I made your meatball recipe as patties, pan-fried w/no oil in a non-stick skillet, and then simmered a bit in my homemade sauce. DELISH!!! I truly, truly loved them! And they came together really quickly for a fast mid-week meal. Thanks for the recipe!!
OMG. I found this recipe and these meatballs are so so delicious! Im cooking dinner for my sons Volleyball team( Go Bengals!) and I know they will love these. I made a lot. Thanks for this recipe. I did add more garlic and 2 slices of bread soaked in the milk. I baked them on a cooking sheet that was greased with olive oil. Thank you.
Found your recipe and it sounded really good. So, I just made a double batch and these taste fantastic. This is the recipe we well use from now on. Thanks so much for the recipe. Simple fantastic!!!!
Easy recipe excellent results. I cooked some of the meatballs in my marinara sauce and froze the rest of the uncooked meatballs for future use. Thank you!
I made this last night, and it was amazing. I added some crushed red pepper, and a little more garlic and parm cheese. This one is a keeper, thanks for providing!
These meatballs are great, I think 1 tsp of salt would have been best. I was buying ingrediants at a bulk barn and a women recommended placing them in the oven on pieces of bread, which absorbs the greese and leaves no mess. What a great idea she had, it worked like a charm.
Great recipe…I notice when they come out there are some that have grease clumps… am I doing something wrong?
Heather – no, you are doing everything just fine. Those are just excess fat clumps that came off of the meat. just discard them.
Just wanna say YUMMMMM! Thanks for the wonderful meatball recipe!!!
Hi there, Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome Meatball recipe, you are right, they are simply the best. Never tasted any this good in my entire 45 years on the planet, not even in Italy! A real winner, and the compliments just keep flowing in!!!and your internet link to these creations just keeps going out! Legendary! Whats your next creation to temp us all with Bobbie?
cheers
craig
So, I googled best easy meatball recipe and your site came up on the first page. I clicked on it and thought, hey, this looks pretty dang tasty. So, I whipped them up last night and put them on a italian bun, layered with provolone and marina sauce and OMG! They are soooooo yummy! 🙂 Great recipe!
This is the exact recipe my Grandmother made when we were kids…it’s good food!
My husband loves meatballs, so I pulled up a recipe online and there your’s was…can’t wait to taste them…the smell is simply wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing…
This is the first time I’ve made meatballs, and with the rave reviews from my picky husband looks like I will be making this quite often from now on. The only variation to the recipe was that I added a tablespoon of tomato paste and a little caster sugar to the mixture for some extra tastiness. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
LOVE the recipe. We made it as a cooking project for my summer camp class. Our theme was Global Campers. We learned about Italy. :-). We even made our own bread crumbs from scratch!! The kids LOVED it! Thank you!
OMG! just cooking these now and they smell exactly like my nonna’s Cant wait to try them 🙂 Thank you
well read your reviews so I will give it a try!!
We Love your Meatballs they were delish.. My meatballs befor this were tasting just like my meat loaf so I stoped making my own and started buying the frozzen ones.. Not any more I will be making this all the time.. you are now in my recipe book.. Thanks for a good recipe!!
Love the meatballs. I also bake them. I add a little extra basil and LOTS of garlic.
I decided randomly to make my left over chop meat into meatballs but was concerned that I didn’t have enough ingredients at home to make them. I had to substitute Pecorino for the Parmesan but otherwise, had everything else…these came out AMAZING!!!! THANK YOU!
I really like the Meatball recipe. I did not add the salt,I changed the salt to Onion powder awsome recipe THANK YOU FOR SHARING MARIA
Everyone loved your recipe. My daughter googled for “easy meatball recipes” and came across your blog. Certainly easy and a hit at dinnertime. Time to bookmark and make them again.
This is the first time that I have ever made meatballs. I did it exactly like the recipe minus the pork, I used all beef. I like to use sweet pork in my spaghetti sauce along with the beef so I just left it at that. I baked them first and then buried them in my already made sauce that was nice and warm. They were actually very tasty and the perfect size. For the first recipe I tried, I think it’s going to be the last. I’m sure it was the pictures that kept me with wanting to try this recipe first. Nice job Bobby………..
i just got done making the meatballs for this recipe, and i gotta say that it is by far one of the best meatballs i’ve had in a long time. i did change one thing and i don’t know if it made a difference but instead of the breadcrumbs that it called for, i crushed up some italian style croutons.(the croutons def have more flavor than the typical seasoned breadcrumbs.) either way i will say that i am pleased with this recipe. thanks!
I just made these for dinner tonight.. I must say, WOW. They were delicious! I added chopped onions just for a kick. By far the best recipe I’ve tried.
This is the first time that I made meatballs and they were the best I ever had. I ate so much, that i felt like a truck 🙂
So delicious, thanks much!! for sharing the recipe.
Wooooo!!! Thank you so much…. Was very easy and my meatballs r so amazing thank to your help!!!!!
These meatballs are so yummy! We had wine gravy left over after Thanksgiving, so I baked the meatballs and served them with the gravy, mashed potatoes and a green salad. Thank you for a great recipe!
So I just Made Meatballs using beef tenderloin, pork sausage, jalapeno bacon and smoked gouda. Next I decided that a meatball slider was the way to go. Deelish.
Thank you for the great recipe ! I love Italian dishes. I think it’s perfect with a nice glass of my home made wine using this wine making recipes. Thank you again.
I love this recipe, I added shallots ricotta cheese and an onion. People rave about my meatballs. Thanks for the help.
Do you reaaally need an egg?? Its the only ingredient im missing ughhh lol!!
mary- you could leave the egg out, it would be fine.
Hey thanks for sharing this recipe, i have packed my cooking books for i was going to move well now can’t find them anywhere, so got on internet, this was the first one i looked at, so going to use this one having Sunday dinner with my Bestfriend our theme of course is Italian. I just know this will be a hit and better than the recipe i was going to use, got to leave out garlic, cause she allergic to it but all in all it will be great, thanks again for sharing.
This is my first time cooking meatballs I figure I’m 25 and very into my Italian culture except I always cheat on the meatballs always store bought. So I pray this works I’m a great cook this is just something new finger crossed x wish me luck
Delicious! I use an ice cream scoop to shape the meatballs, keeps the hands clean! I will make this again!
I’d like to make a big batch of these for a party. What should I do if I’m cooking in a crock pot? Brown in oven first, or put in crock pot raw? Thanks!
Rose- either way should work fine.
Are these meatballs spicy?
Addison- not spicy at all.
These meatballs are delicous!!! Great flavor, not dry, just all around yummy!! This recipe is going in the permanent section of my cookbook..Thanks so much!!
Im a broke college student who get most of my food from a food pantry…first i love this recipe because there arent a lot of ingredients (which helps bc i regularly have little), and sencond bc is is so versitile….u can dress up and go with fresh herbs or dress down and use dried herbs….you can substitute almost anything from reading the comments..either way i followed your recipe…the only thing i changed is that instead of using beef, pork, or veal, i used ground venison that was given to me and it smells delicious…cooked them all and will freeze half so i can have a good meal midweek…thank you for the good eats. Caio!
Can you tell me if the Parm cheese is dryed or from a block of fresh cheese
Allen- it is the dried Parmesan cheese.
i just made these. but i used ground deer meat instead and they turned out great 😀
I just made these. I have tried many meatball recipes, so I have no doubt that this one will be stellar…and that’s even before tasting it!