Try these homemade, oven-baked Italian meatballs for a quick and easy dinner tonight. They are juicy and tender, seasoned with Parmesan cheese and Italian spices. These simple baked meatballs are perfect for adding to your favorite marinara sauce, creating a meatball sub sandwich, or serving as a main dish.
🐄Ingredients
Ground meat— beef or combined with Italian sausage
Egg
Aromatic—onion and garlic
Bread crumbs—Panko, Italian preferred
Parmesan cheese—grated
Pantry ingredients—oregano, ketchup, salt, pepper
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Featured Comment by Brian:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Great recipe, straightforward, even simple, with little fuss and mess to clean up."
These are not the little, hard, tasteless meatballs you buy at the store. They are big, soft, and tasty meatballs nicely browned for extra flavor from baking at a higher temperature in the convection oven.
There are many meatball recipes, and many claim to be the best. The best meatballs are those that meet your expectations for great taste and are easy to make with ingredients you already have. These meatballs are so delicious that you don't need to cover them; they're fantastic as a main course.
👨🍳How to Bake Italian Meatballs—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Mix the panade of all the ingredients except the meat.
2. Mix the meat until it's well incorporated, but don’t overmix. Use of clean hands is acceptable.
3. On a nonstick baking sheet lightly sprayed with PAM, scoop equal-sized meatballs with a 1 ½ to 2-inch diameter. I use an ice cream scoop, but hand-forming is fine.
4. Bake in a 425° regular or 400° convection oven until 165° minimum internal temperature—about 20 minutes.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
⏲️How Long to Bake Meatballs
Bake at 425° in a conventional oven or 400° in a convection oven for about 20 minutes to reach 165° internal temperature. This will vary by the size of the meatballs, the pan, and your oven.
While the safe temperature for ground meat other than poultry is 160°, the egg rised the final safe temp to 165°.
🤔Ingredient options and variations
Ground Meat: I generally use 80/20 ground beef, but adding half Italian sausage gives it a great taste. However, you can use any ground meat you want. For example, you can make veal, chicken, or turkey meatballs.
Bread Crumbs: I prefer Panko bread crumbs but regular or homemade breadcrumbs will work fine. Most commercial breadcrumbs come with various seasoning, use the one you like—I suggest Italian, cheese, or plain.
Ketchup: Adds a lot of flavor of for the beef, but if you substitute for a different meat, skip the ketchup and use other seasoning if you wish.
Herbs and Spices: I chose oregano here, but other spices, such as an Italian spice mix, basil, parsley, or red pepper flakes, could be added.
Other liquid: Add about ¼ cup of milk or water if the panade is thick or if you skip the ketchup.
😊Tips to make the right every time
Do not overmix or compress them, as they will become tougher. Think of them as balls of meatloaf.
Use a baking mat or parchment paper if you don't have a non-stick tray.
If you want to simmer them in the sauce instead of just adding them and heating them, you should cook them more, add another egg, make them a little smaller, and roll them tight with wet hands.
📅Making ahead
After you form the balls, you refrigerate them for 24 hours, covered well before cooking.
You can also freeze uncooked meatballs. Place them on a tray in the freezer for a few hours, then transfer them to a freezer bag for up to 2 months. You can thaw and cook them or cook them frozen as long as you reach a final internal temperature of 165°.
📋Italian recipes you will love
Try some of these other Italian recipes: Italian Sausage Marinara Sauce, 30-Minute Chicken Marinara Sauce, Pasta E Fagioli Soup, and Boursin Cheese Sauce with Chicken and Pasta.
Or fire up the crock pot for Crock Pot Baked Ziti, and Crock Pot Chicken Baked Ziti.
🍽️Serving
The most common serving method is in your favorite marinara sauce with pasta. I like meatball submarine sandwiches with marinara and mozzarella. Or make a BBQ version.
This meatballs are also flavorful enough to serve as a entree.
❄️Storing leftovers and reheating
Store leftovers sealed and airtight in the refrigerator for 4 days or frozen for 2 months. Reheat in an air fryer or oven at 350° for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size. A microwave may also be used.
❓FAQs
It is easy to submitter gluten free bread crumbs and be sure to use gluten free ketchup.
To make dairy free meatballs, substitute a goat version of Ramono cheese and use a substitute milk if you need any.
Yes. They will tend to fall apart in the sauce. Before adding them, they should be well-browned on the stovetop or fully cooked to a safe temperature, like in this recipe.
A panade is a liquid and starch mixture that is used to keep meat tender and moist while cooking. A common example is that bread and milk are used in meatloaf to extend the usefulness of relatively inexpensive meat.
It can also help maintain moisture in low-fat meat dishes. Sometimes, it contains eggs and spices, like these meatballs, to add moisture, flavor, and hold the ground meat together.
👨🍳Jump to Recipe
Baked Italian Meatballs
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Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef - or other ground meats
- 1 large egg
- ½ onion - medium chopped fine
- 1 clove garlic - minced or crushed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese - grated
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425° regular or 400° convection.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add one egg and whip it to combine the yolk and white. Add ½ medium onion chopped small, 1 clove crushed garlic, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, ½ teaspoon oregano, 1 tablespoon ketchup, ¼ cup each of panko bread crumbs, and grated Parmesan cheese. Mix well.
- Add 1 pound of ground beef, but break it apart while adding it. Mix until all is incorporated well but no more. Hand mixing is acceptable. Do not over mix.
- On a nonstick baking sheet sprayed with PAM cooking spray or a regular sheet pan lined with parchment paper, scoop equal-sized meatballs with a diameter of 1 ½ to 2 inches. Again, the use of hands is acceptable.
- Bake until 165° minimum internal temperature—about 20 minutes.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- You can use almost any type of ground meat, but it needs to have some fat. I suggest all beef or a 50/50 mix of ground beef and Italian sausage.
- Mix just to the point where the ingredients are combined. Do not over-mix or over-compress.
- I suggest ketchup if you are making beef, but skip it if you are making other meats.
- Season to your taste.
- You want consistent sizes so they cook evenly.
- Done is an internal temperature of 165° for safety due to the egg.
- An extra egg is a good idea if you add it to a sauce to simmer.
- Good refrigerated for 4 days and will freeze well for 2 months.
- Make-ahead instructions are in the post.
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Originally Published November 24, 2012. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Brian Mooney says
Great recipe, straightforward, even simple, with little fuss mess to cleanup.
Made minewith equal parts of 85/15 ground beef, and ground mild Italian sausage. A few tablespoons of minced fresh parsley brightened both the flavor and appearance. Plus some dried marjoram in place of oregano was added for more a more subtle flavor, with a dash of Tabasco or similar hot sauce.
Don D. says
Perfect / Easy meatball recipe to go with my recent homemade tomato sauce. I was able to make 9 - 2.5oz. meatballs and have a few left over for a sandwich tomorrow. So happy to have come across your recipe!
Lauren F says
This is such a great, simple recipe! I used parchment paper for easier cleanup and I love to spoon some Rao's Marinara over it. So glad I found your website, love all of your recipes for two!
Dan Mikesell says
I admit to a little heavy on the onion. I do like my onion but for this recipe it needs to be fine or it's scale is off. I'm not a mustard person but the Worcestershire sounds great.
Heidi Menocal says
I made these tonight. Very easy and delicious. I did add ground mustard and Worcestershire sauce, as I add those to mu meatloaf. I think next time I will add less onion or really dice it small.
Chris says
Sounds like they would be good in a meatball sub.