I hope you’ve been having a good week so far!
This week has been another busy one for me – I’ve been catching up on some housework and have also been planning out more recipes and posts to share with you on the site. I’ve got some really tasty recipes and desserts planned for the next few weeks so I’m really excited!
Last week when I went grocery shopping I picked up a bunch of packages of lean ground beef/pork mix. Of course I couldn’t resist getting them since they were on sale for super super cheap! I turned that meat into some tasty meatballs and me oh my… are they ever good!
I know for a lot of busy households, meatballs can be a staple. Meatballs are great because they can be made ahead of time and thrown in the freezer for when you need them with a meal.
I call this the perfect basic meatball recipe because it goes perfect with just about anything you want to serve it with! You can use them with pasta sauce and Italian dishes or you can create some unique and tasty sauces and serve the meatballs as a tasty appetizer.
There so many ways to use meatballs and all of them are tasty! This post is about my basic meatball recipe and you can use this in whatever dish you’d like that calls for meatballs. Just add some kind of sauce and you got something even more fantastic!
Even though this is considered a basic meatball recipe it’s packed with a great amount of flavour and goes with just about any kind of sauce you’d like to serve it with.
This recipe makes quite a lot of meatballs so you may want to freeze some to have on hand for when you need them. This is usually enough meatballs for my family and I to eat for a couple days.
The meatballs in this post were cooked in a frying pan but you could also bake them in the oven and they turn out just as delicious. I’ve included instructions in the recipe below for both methods.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and please let me know in the comments section below how you would use the perfect basic meatball recipe! 🙂
The Perfect Basic Meatball Recipe
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 30–35 meatballs 1x
Ingredients
- 4 lbs lean ground beef and pork mixture
- 1/3 cup onion, finely minced (I grated my onion to make sure it was extra fine)
- 4 cloves glarlic, minced
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 tsp Italian herbs seasoning
- ¼ tsp smoked paprika
- 1 ½ tsp oregano
- 1/3 cup Italian style bread crumbs (the kind with the herbs and romano cheese)
- 2 eggs
- Additional salt and pepper, to taste
For cooking in a frying pan: - Some cooking oil, as needed
Instructions
- Mix together all the ingredients until combined. You can either do this by hand or by using a stand mixer on low speed using the paddle attachment.
- Try to not over mix the meat mixture or you’ll end up with tough meatballs. Just mix until everything is combined.
- Using the palms of your hands loosely roll about a golf ball sized amount of meat to form a ball. Continue forming balls until all the meat mixture is used. It’s important that when you are forming the balls you DO NOT pack them. Packing the meatballs when you form them will make them tough and less juicy.
To cook using using a frying pan: - In a large frying pan, heat up a little cooking oil on medium heat.
- Once the oil has heated up, place the balls in the pan to cook. Try not to overcrowd the pan.
- Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper, to taste.
- After about 2 minutes of cooking on one side flip the balls over and continue cooking.
- As the balls cook, gently move them around a bit using tongs to brown them on all surfaces. You may need to lower the heat some to make sure they don’t over cook.
- Once the meatballs have cooked through and are golden, remove them from the pan and place them on a plate covered with paper towel to remove any excess oil.
- Since this is a large recipe, you may need to cook them in a couple batches.
To make baked meatballs: - Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.
- Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Place the meatballs evenly spaced on the cookie sheet.
- Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes until cooked through and golden.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Category: Main
