• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Unpeeled Journal logo

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Soup, Salad, Snacks
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert + Baking
    • Holidays
    • Vegetarian + Vegan
    • Beverages
    • Easy
    • Recipe Collections
  • Features
    • Articles
    • Profiles
  • Lifestyle
    • Wellness
    • Food Travel Guides
    • Book Club
  • Cooking School
    • Cooking Technique
    • Baking + Pastry Technique
    • Wine Class
    • Better Know a Food
  • The Food + Grief Project
  • About
Home / Recipes / Authentic Italian Meatballs

Jump to Recipe

Authentic Italian Meatballs

Share
Pin136
Tweet
Email
Print

Deeply flavorful, authentic Italian meatballs.

The best authentic Italian meatball recipe, with tomato sauce, from my Italian-American family to yours. These meatballs tender and flavorful, baked in the oven or pan fried.

bowl of authentic italian meatballs and tomato sauce

Meet This Old-Fashioned, Authentic Italian Meatball Recipe

Everyone deserves a real Italian meatball recipe. This one was handed down to me by my mom, who has been making these to perfection for years.

Meatballs inspire a lot of debate. Is it ok to put meatballs on a sheet pan to bake? Or, do authentic meatballs require standing over a hot skillet and frying them until your clothes, hair, and home are saturated with the smell of garlic, onions, and meat? What is the deal with those recipes calling for raisins? (Hint: That is Sicilian style.) Do you need to use beef-pork-veal blend, or can you just use beef? Where is a great flavorful Italian meatball recipe that I can use forever?

You may also enjoy these classic Italian recipes:

  • Italian Sausage and Peppers
  • Baked Ziti With Ricotta

classic Italian meatball ingredients in bowl breadcrumbs cheese onion egg parsley garlic

I think that the answer to all those debates is the same: Yes. In other words, a good authentic meatball is not one that follows a rigid set of rules.

Rather, the best meatballs adhere to the general rules of Italian cooking: some of this, some of that, and a lot of love. That said, some guideposts will lead you to your best classic Italian meatballs.

What’s In Authentic Italian Meatballs?

This old-fashioned Italian meatball recipe sticks to classic meatball ingredients. You will need:

  • 2 1/2 pounds beef, pork, veal mix (equal portions)
  • 2 cups plain breadcrumbs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup freshly-grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
  • 1 bunch fresh, flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped fine
  • 3 large cloves fresh garlic, finely grated or minced
  • 1 medium onion, grated on the large-grate side of a box grater
  • Salt and pepper

tray of baked Italian meatballs

How to Make Meatballs: Recipe Tips

A truly good Italian meatball may not require a lot of ingredients, but you do need the right technique to make sure they are tender. Here are a couple of important tips:

  1. Do not over-mix the meatball meat or squeeze the meat into tight balls. This will result in tough, hard meatballs. The best meatballs are tender.
  2. Secondly, take the time to prep the meatball ingredients correctly. Grate the onion; don’t do big chunks. Same for the garlic. Whisk the eggs. Mince the parsley. That way, all of the flavors will melt together into the meat and make a deeply flavorful result.

Authenti Italian meatball and tomato sauce

How to Make Italian Meatballs in the Oven

The Italian meatball recipe gives directions for baked meatballs instead of fried. I have found that making meatballs (especially a big batch like this) is much neater and more convenient — the trade-off being that they will not have quite the same meaty crust as fried meatballs.

However! Here’s a baked meatball tip: If you line the sheet pan with foil instead of parchment before baking the meatballs in the oven, then place the sheet pan on top of a hot pizza stone in your oven, I find that you will get a tasty crust on the bottom.

How to Cook Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Once you have your batch of homemade Italian meatballs, you’ll want to to add them to tomato sauce (or gravy as I call it).

Here’s the trick: Do not add the meatballs to the sauce too far in advance. If the meatballs are in the tomato sauce too long, they will break apart, especially when the gravy is stirred. Instead:

  • Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce about 15 to 20 minutes before serving,
  • Make sure that the meatballs are fully submerged in tomato, and
  • Make sure you don’t stir the pot too much. You don’t want the meatballs to break apart.

Whether you fry or bake your meatballs, the result will be a flavorful Italian meatball (actually, about two dozen of them) that taste meaty and tender, with just the right hints of onion and garlic. Have fun, and happy rolling.

garlic bulb on wood

Did you make this authentic Italian meatballs recipe? Share below.

authentic Italian meatballs in tomato sauce
Print Recipe

Authentic Italian Meatballs

A big, best Italian meatball recipe for a Sunday tomato sauce crowd. This authentic meatball recipe can be easily halved, and extra can be frozen and saved for other dinners.
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keywords:: dinner, gravy, italian, meatballs, tomato sauce
Servings: 30 or so medium-sized meatballs

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ pounds beef, pork, veal mix (equal portions)
  • 2 cups plain breadcrumbs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • ½ cup freshly-grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
  • 1 bunch fresh, flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped fine
  • 3 large cloves fresh garlic, finely grated or minced
  • 1 medium onion, grated on the large-grate side of a box grater
  • ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 15 turns fresh-cracked black pepper, or 1 teaspoon

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly grease or line with parchment two half-sheet pans.
  • Put the meat in a large mixing bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, and pour the milk over the breadcrumbs and allow it to soak in for a minute.
  • Add the eggs, Pecorino-Romano cheese, chopped parsley, minced garlic, grated onion, salt, and pepper.
    PRO TIP: Include the upper half of the parsley stems when chopping. The stems of most soft herbs, like parsley and cilantro, are completely edible and have great flavor.
  • Remove your rings and bracelets and put them safely on the windowsill or a ring holder. Your hands are about to get a little messy. Mix the meatballs until combined -- mixing with your hands is the best, and arguably only, way.
    PRO TIP: Mixing the meatballs is an important step. It is important not to over-mix the meat. If the meat becomes too over-mixed, it will lose its ideal, fall-apart consistency. Using your hands helps control the mixing. Keep your fingers loose, and never squeeze the meat.
  • Using a 1/2 cup scoop, lightly shape the meatballs with your hands into loose but solid rounds, and place them on the prepared sheet pans, with at least 1" space between each.
  • Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway. "Sample" one or two hot out of the oven, then smother them with Sunday gravy or marinara, and serve with pasta.

Filed Under: Dinner, Easy, Recipes Tagged With: beef, italian, meatballs, pasta, recipe, sunday sauce

Sign Up for the Weekly Newsletter

Never miss a recipe.

More from Unpeeled

Irish Potato Candy

Irish Potato Candy

Burrata With Roasted Vine Tomatoes

Burrata With Roasted Vine Tomatoes

Quick Braised Celery and Leeks

Quick Braised Celery and Leeks

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary P. says

    March 17, 2020 at 10:33 am

    5 stars
    Yes to baking instead of frying! These are delicious.

    Reply
  2. L.T. says

    July 14, 2020 at 10:16 pm

    4 stars
    These are very, very good. Mine broke apart in my tomato sauce a bit, but that’s all. The flavor was good.. Do you think it would be as good without the veal? Thanks.

    Reply
  3. Jackie says

    October 8, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    Hi
    How much will a bunch of parsley be. 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup etc.

    Reply
    • Unpeeled says

      October 9, 2021 at 8:48 am

      Hi, Jackie! It’s about 3/4 to 1 cup loosely packed chopped celery.

      Reply
  4. Lisa says

    December 8, 2021 at 4:17 pm

    Hi Lisa …

    Can you please clarify the difference between “Sunday Sauce” and Marinara?

    Thanks!
    Lisa

    Reply
    • Unpeeled says

      December 9, 2021 at 5:14 pm

      Sure! Marinara is a quick, simple tomato sauce made without meat and only a few ingredients. Sunday sauce is the whole shebang: tomato sauce cooked for hours with sausage, meatballs, the whole thing 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Unpeeled

A celebration of cooking, baking, and food. Learn More

Digital Media Awards Winner

Popular Posts

chinese chili oil ingredients hot pepper Sichuan peppercorns garlic ginger
soda bread on baking pan
homemade orange granita in orange shell with juice and spoon
swiss meringue buttercream layer cake on cake stand
mug of the the best homemade chicken soup with bread and spoon
Open-Faced Tuna Melts Recipe

Your inbox is hungry! Get the weekly newsletter.

Footer

About Unpeeled

Trusted recipes, cooking and baking techniques, travel guides, inspiring profiles, and lots more.

Features

  • Articles
  • Profiles
  • Taste Tests
  • Food Writing Roundups

Cooking School

  • Cooking Technique
  • Baking + Pastry Technique
  • Wine Class

Information

  • About & Contact
  • F.A.Q.s
  • Privacy Statement
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2023 Unpeeled Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Soup, Salad, Snacks
    • Dinner
    • Sides
    • Dessert + Baking
    • Holidays
    • Vegetarian + Vegan
    • Beverages
    • Easy
    • Recipe Collections
  • Features
    • Articles
    • Profiles
    • Taste Tests
    • Food Writing Roundups
  • Lifestyle
    • Wellness
    • Food Travel Guides
    • Book Club
  • Cooking School
    • Cooking Technique
    • Baking + Pastry Technique
    • Wine Class
    • Better Know a Food
  • The Food + Grief Project
    • Food That Heal
    • F+G Articles, Interviews, Essays
  • About
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter