I’m not a meatball connoisseur, but I think I am going to start! I’ve been a meatball kick since the hubby and I went to a cute tapas and wine bar called Relm in Camarillo, if you live in the area and want a great place to have girls night out or a great date night. I highly recommend!! I ordered their meatballs and zooddles (zucchini noodles) and have been obsessing and craving them ever since!
I’ve made or recreated the meal twice now, and think I’ve dialed in the zooddles, but the store bought meatballs aren’t cutting it. So I’ve been on a mission to make a delicious meatball. It might not be perfect, but I think its pretty darn close!
Meatballs really are a pretty quick and easy dish to do homemade. Depending on the amount and quantity you’re going for, will depend on how long this takes. Little time in prepping, but when you’re rolling 54 meatballs, it isn’t a super quick meal. There is definitely some labor of love that goes into it. But man, is it worth it! My family won’t settle for anything other than these babies now. Kinda shot myself in the foot with this one. But, I find myself agreeing. And my motto is, if you’re making it anyways, double it!
This is us, making a butt ton of meatballs. Easy peasy, just put everything into one big bowl! We used ground turkey, hot Italian sausage (slice through casing and remove, discard casing) egg, diced onion, minced garlic, crushed red pepper, bread crumbs and panko. I finely chopped basil, parsley, dill and oregano. (These herbs are super easy to grow in the yard to have on hand) Throw it ALL in there!
Now, this is the messy part. You really got to get in there! Yup, we mix this by hand! Mix it well, make sure your scooping from the bottom.
My best advise at this point is to make a tiny flat meat patty and cook it. Takes a min on each side. Then taste it. This will let you know if you need to add anything more. If/when all taste good… get to rollin”!!
You can make any size you like, just know the bigger they are the longer they take to cook. And I’m pretty happy with a two bite size meatball!
Now that we have rolled our life away, we are going to brown them on the stove. Couple min on each side. Do as many as fits in your pan at a time.
Place them back onto baking sheet as you finish browning them. And bake them at 350 til nice and brown. If you’re throwing them in with pasta sauce, you don’t want them cooked all the way. They will continue to cook in the pasta.
Final product!! SO yum!! As you can tell from the photo a few got eaten before I could even snap a photo!
Homemade Meatballs
Ingredients
- Ground turkey/beef
- Mild or Hot Italian sausage
- breadcrumbs or panko
- minced garlice
- parsley
- basil
- thyme
- oregano
- crushed red pepper flakes optional
- 2 eggs
- salt & pepper optional
Instructions
- In a big bowl, add ground turkey and Italian sausage (remove from casing)
- Beat eggs and add to meat mixture
- Then add the rest of your ingredients. Spices, bread crumbs and red pepper flakes (optional) salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
- Optional step: Make a little flat patty and cook in a little oil on the stove. Taste to see how the flavor is. If its good continue on to next step. If you think its missing something, add little more and try again.
- Now it's time to start rolling meatballs. Grab a baking sheet and placed rolled meatballs on baking sheet.
- Heat oven to 350.In a fry pan, heat up oil and brown all your meatballs, both sides. Approx. 3 min each side. Then transfer back to baking sheet and bake in oven for about 20 min. (depending on how small or big you make your meatballs) This way gets them nice a browned and seals in the juices of the meat when we bake them in the oven.*Its fine to use the same baking sheet that had your raw meatballs on because you are going to now finish cooking them in the oven. Otherwise, if you cooked your meatballs all the way through on the stove, you'd grab a clean baking sheet.
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