Spaghetti and Meatballs

This Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe makes delicious homemade meatballs, cooked in marinara sauce and served over a bed of spaghetti.

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This delicious Italian classic will satisfy everyone at your dinner table and once you try it, it will likely make it into your regular rotation.

For The Spaghetti Sauce

To keep things simple, this recipe calls for about 2 quarts of tomato sauce. You can use three 24oz/680g jars of store-bought or If you want to make homemade, you can use the sauce from my Spaghetti and Italian Sausage recipe (which is what I use), my Simple Marinara Sauce, or Easy Homemade Tomato Sauce.

Step by Step Instructions

In a small mixing bowl, stir together bread crumbs and milk until they are fully moistened. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, mix ½ teaspoon baking soda with a tablespoon of water to form a slurry. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the beef, slurry, garlic, parsley, and Parmesan cheese and season with about a teaspoon of salt and freshly grated pepper

Add the breadcrumb mixture and mix well with your hands, squeezing the mixture through your fingers

Mix until fully combined.

Shape mixture with greased hands into even size meatballs, about 1 ½-inches-inches each.

Heat olive oil into a large skillet. Add the meatballs about 2 inches apart and brown them until crisp. Do this in batches rather than crowding the pan. For more detailed information on pan-frying meatballs, see my Italian Meatballs post.

Once browned, transfer to paper towels to blot.

Stir the cooked meatballs into the warmed tomato sauce. Simmer on low heat for at least 5 minutes. The longer they cook the more tender they become and the richer the sauce (on a Sundays mine simmer all day).

Serve over freshly cooked Spaghetti.

This recipe calls for baking the meatballs. For pan-frying meatballs, see my post for Italian Meatballs.

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Let’s Make Spaghetti and Meatballs

Flavorful Italian meatballs cooked from scratch and simmered in spaghetti sauce. Italian comfort food at it’s finest.

4.92 from 12 votes

Prep30 minutes minutes

Cook20 minutes minutes

Total50 minutes minutes

Serves: 8

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup bread crumbs about 3.5 oz
• ▢ ¼ cup milk or water – plus more if needed
• ▢ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 tablespoon water
• ▢ 2 lb ground beef 80-85% lean
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 4 garlic cloves minced
• ▢ fresh parsley a good handful, finely chopped
• ▢ ½ cup Parmesan cheese fresh grated
• ▢ Salt to taste (I ise at least a tablespoon of salt)
• ▢ olive oil if frying
• ▢ freshly ground black pepper about 15 turns of the grinder
• ▢ 24 oz Tomato Sauce homemade or a 24oz/680g jar of store-bought.
• ▢ 1 lb Spaghetti

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Stovetop

• In a small bowl mix the baking soda with the water until well combined. Set aside.
• In another mixing bowl, Add the milk and stir together while adding more milk 1 tablespoon at a time to moisten the breadcrumbs fully. Let rest while you prep the rest of the ingredients (or at least 5 minutes).
• In a large mixing bowl add the beef, garlic, parsley, and parmesan cheese and season with about a teaspoon of salt and freshly grated pepper (if using jarred sauce, it may be salty so season to taste).
• Add the baking soda and breadcrumb mixtures and mix well with your hands, squeezing the mixture through your fingers until combined.
• Shape mixture with greased hands into even size meatballs, about 1 ½-inches each (making about 16 meatballs).
• Heat about ½ cup of vegetable oil into a large skillet. You’ll want about ½-inch of oil in the pan.Add the meatballs to the heated oil about 2 inches apart and brown them until crisp, turning with a pair of tongs so that they are evenly browned. Do this in batches rather than crowding the pan.Once browned, transfer to paper towels to blot.
• Stir the cooked meatballs into warmed tomato sauce. Simmer on low heat if desired for even more tender meatballs (on a Sunday mine simmers all day) stirring often to keep the sauce from sticking to the pan.
• Taste for seasoning, season with salt as needed, and serve over freshly cooked Spaghetti.

Slow Cooker

• Follow the stovetop instructions through step 6. Then transfer to a slow cooker, stir the cooked meatballs. cover, and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
• Taste for seasoning, season with salt as needed, and serve over freshly cooked Spaghetti.

Tips + Notes

For detailed information on  pan-fried meatballs, see my recipe for Italian Meatballs

Adding baking soda to the beef keeps it moist by enhancing its PH levels and stopping the proteins from binding too quickly (which dries out the meat).

• Use fresh ingredients whenever possible. Fresh meat, herbs, and aromatic have the best flavor.
• Avoid low-fat meats Fat helps make the meatballs tender. I recommend 80 or 85% lean beef.
• Don’t skip the baking soda or moistening the breadcrumbs, these steps help keep the meatballs tender and moist.
• Be sure to use the egg. If you skip the eggs the meatballs will fall apart in the sauce. 
• After mixing your meatball mixture, it’s worth taking the extra time to taste test it by making a mini hamburger patty and pan-frying it in some olive oil until fully cooked. Then give it a taste. It should taste delicious! If it doesn’t, it probably needs salt. Season the raw mixture and repeat if you want to be 100% sure.
• Stir often when Simmering the meatballs in the sauce. Tomato sauce sticks easily to the bottom of the pan which can ruin your sauce if burned.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 423 (21%)| Carbohydrates: 58g (19%)| Protein: 25g (50%)| Fat: 10g (15%)| Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)| Cholesterol: 62mg (21%)| Sodium: 697mg (30%)| Potassium: 646mg (18%)| Fiber: 4g (17%)| Sugar: 6g (7%)| Vitamin A: 459IU (9%)| Vitamin C: 6mg (7%)| Calcium: 143mg (14%)| Iron: 4mg (22%)

Nutritional Data Disclaimer

Erren’s Kitchen is written and produced for informational intentions only. We are not certified nutritionists, and the nutritional information found on this site has not been assessed or authorized by a nutritionist or the FDA. The nutritional information found in our recipes is offered as an estimate and should not be considered a guarantee or fact. The estimated data is provided as a courtesy and calculated through a third-party online nutritional calculator, spoonacular API. Although we do our best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered rough estimates. Many factors, such as brands or products purchased and the nutritional fluctuations that naturally occur in fresh produce, can alter the effectiveness of the nutritional information in any recipe. Furthermore, various online calculators provide different results depending on their particular algorithms and nutrition fact sources. To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Author:Erren Hart

Course:Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine:Italian

Keyword:Spaghetti and Meatballs, Spaghetti with Meatballs

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