Sunday Sauce Meatballs
One of my favorite smells growing up was that of my Mom making sauce. I would wake up in the morning to the smell of meatballs cooking and sauce simmering. This meant a big chunk of crusty Italian bread with a side of sauce for dipping at lunch and a big dish of pasta and meatballs for dinner. When I moved out on my own, I set out to perfect my own homemade sauce. I combined two loved recipes to come up with my version.
But today I am going to focus on the meatball portion of my Sunday Sauce recipe. Not because my sauce recipe is difficult or a secret, but because to get it right you have to slow cook it for several hours. Meatballs on the other hand can be made fairly quickly and are super versatile. Use them with your favorite jarred sauce, make meatball subs or sliders, or make mini size meatballs to throw in a pot of Italian Wedding Soup or to use as an appetizer.
Over the years I have also to adjust my meatball recipe as we navigated our son’s every changing food allergies. Today I will be making gluten free meatballs. If you are not gluten free, you can substitute breadcrumbs for oats in this recipe. I will share a couple other variations in case there are certain ingredients you need to avoid.
First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and gather all your ingredients. You will need 1 pound of lean ground beef, 1 large egg, 1/2 c. instant oats, 1/4 c, Parmesan cheese, 1 T. dried parsley, 1 T. dried oregano, 1 t. garlic powder, 1/2 t. salt, 1/4 t. black pepper and 1/4 c. cup water (plus a small cup set to the side).
Second line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Now you are ready to mix all the ingredients together. Your hands are the best tool for this job, but you can use a spoon if you prefer. Do not over mix your meat mixture, just mix until all combined. If your mixture seems to dry you can add more water, and if it seems to wet add oats, a little at a time.
Next you are ready to roll…literally. I keep the small cup of water next to me to wet my hands when they get sticky as I roll the meatballs. You can make your meatballs whatever size you desire, there is no right or wrong size. I prefer mine on the smaller size, I would say about 1/8 c. of meat mixture per meatball. This recipe usually makes 12-15 meatballs. If I am making Sunday Sauce I will double or triple the recipe. Roll your meatballs and place a couple inches apart on your baking sheet.
Bake in the over for 30 minutes. I like my meatballs to come out nicely browned and crispy. If 30 minutes doesn’t seem to do the trick, pop them back in for a few more minutes. Just be careful to not overcook, they will dry out. (You can check internal temperature with a meat thermometer, they should cook to 160 degrees F.)
Now you are ready to serve your meatballs however you like.
Hope you and your family enjoy these meatballs as much as we do!
XO,
Danelle
Sunday Sauce Meatballs Recipe
Notes
Yield: 12-15 meatballs, 2 meatballs per serving
Here are some hints if you need to avoid certain foods:
- Traditional Meatballs are made with bread crumbs. This is a 1-1 swap, so if you are not gluten free you can use breadcrumbs instead of oats.
- Dairy Free: omit the Parmesan cheese, just add an extra 1/4 t. salt and 1/4 t. garlic salt to pump up the flavor
- Egg Free: substitute the eggs with an egg substitute, I have used Ener-G egg replaced and gotten good results
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 large egg*
- 1/2 c. breadcrumbs **
- 1/4 c. parmesan cheese ***
- 1 T. dried parsley flakes
- 1 T. dried oregano flakes
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1/4 t. black pepper
- 1 t. garlic powder
- 1/4 c. water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil sprayed with non stick cooking spray
- In a large bowl mix all ingredients, do not over mix, mix until just combined.
- Take about 1/8 c. of mixture and roll into ball. Place about 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
- Bake in over for about 30 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.
- Serve and enjoy
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