The Best Italian Meatballs

Every Italian woman will claim she has the best meatballs. No but really, I have the best meatballs.

There are several reasons why my meatballs are the bomb.

1)  My meat mix is 2 lbs beef, 1 lb pork. The pork gives it SO much flavor.

2) My meat mix has heavy cream in it. This is what makes the meatballs SO TENDER. Like, melt in your mouth tender.

My Aunt Mella was this little old Italian lady that was the best cook ever. She used to soak sliced white bread in heavy cream then mix it with the meat.

I don’t always have bread around the house. (Yes, I sometimes attempt to eat low carb.)

One day I tried just pouring the cream in the meat mixture and adding Italian bread crumbs. SLAM DUNK.

Best meatballs ever. Since then I’ve been doing it this way.

Today I made a large batch of meatballs to freeze. I am trying to stock up my freezer since we ate almost all of the deer meat that we had stocked up.

I baked the meatballs, put them on a new baking sheet, and placed them in the freezer to “flash freeze” them. This makes them easier to toss in a Ziploc bag in the freeze and pull out individual ones as needed.

Here are different things you can do with meatballs:

Meatball Stew

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Meatball Sliders

Meatball Poboys

Meatball Pizza

The options are endless!

 

Here is how I make them.

Add the beef, pork, eggs, Dijon, seasonings, Worcestershire, bread crumbs, and cream. Stir with a fork. Make sure the beef and pork are mixed well.

Roll into meatballs. I went with this size because they will shrink slightly.

Place them all on a greased sheet pan, spacing them out slightly.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I took them out at 20 minutes because I was freezing them and know I will cook them more when I take them out the freezer. At 20 minutes they are fully cooked but not as brown.

If putting them in a freezer, place them on a clean sheet pan and freeze for about 2 hours. This will allow them to freeze separately and you can place them in a Ziploc bag. When you need to take them out to defrost it will be easier to grab as many as you want and not a giant glob of meatballs.

This made about 36 meatballs.

 

The Best Italian Meatballs

2 lbs ground beef (80/20)

1 lb ground pork

3 eggs

2 heaping tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp kosher salt

fresh cracked pepper (must be fresh)

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp Tony Chachere

3/4 cup heavy cream (DO NOT USE HALF AND HALF, MUST BE HEAVY CREAM)

2/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl, making sure the pork and beef are evenly distributed.

Roll into meatballs and place on greased sheet pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

*Note: If placing directly in the freezer, place the meatballs on a clean sheet pan. Freeze for 2 or more hours then place the meatballs in Ziploc bags.

If not freezing, drop them in some red gravy and let them continue to cook in there. You won’t be sorry!

5 thoughts on “The Best Italian Meatballs”

  1. Just for the record, I woke up a few minutes earlier than usual, picked up my phone for some reason saw your your blog.
    I don’t usually write in blogs mainly because I just don’t have the time.
    I’m a 62 year old Sicilian Family man. Married 42 years!
    I loved to cook, and as a young kid, I stood next to Grandma Providencia, who lived next door in our duplex. As an old man now I wander back to the loving memories in the kitchen of this very special woman. I loved her soft cheeks, dabbed pink in French Rouge, often giving her a kisses she very much deserved.
    MEATBALLS, Polpetti in Sicilian we made weekly. I couldn’t wait until the first “test”ones were fried in olive oil and sitting in a little plate to taste, and to make sure they were as good as they could be each time. To be honest, they were a little different each time depending on her ingredients available. When she cooked for her 8 children she got creative with ways to extend the tasty meatball mixture to make as many as possible for her children. When they were older they confessed this” we would sneek into the kitchen, usually Sunday morning, grab a meatball cooking in sauce, add some water and slam the tasty balls of meat with out her knowing it!” Finally she admitted, she couldn’t figure out why her sauce wasn’t get think like she liked it & she always was sure she made more meatballs. All the kids did that! I love telling this story because it’s so unbelievable and what’s really funny is the kids all did that. They did it individually and finally somebody admitted doing that and they all finally admitted it.
    She was cooking for 10 people, how many meatballs do you think she had to make, 50 or 60 meatballs, in a pot of sauce. They made it for the Sunday meal, and the rest of the week. At least that’s what she was trying to do!
    I have said enough…my wife agreed. I did want to share the ingredients of what authentic Sicilian meatballs are made of.
    But only if you want it. My youngest daughter has mastered Italian/Sicilian meatballs that people beg her for.
    We have catered many weddings that begged for Italian Food. 1000’s of meatballs, till you could die!
    Just kidding, I’d come back for a great meatball!
    I will try your recipe because I read through your blog and I don’t usually do that. But you have a lot great recipes so I will try quite a few.

    1. Oh how I enjoyed reading your comment! Nothing is more comforting than Italian food. I would love if you shared your meatball recipe with me. My dad has his own way of making them too. I am currently trying to perfect bruccoloni. Have you ever cooked it? It’s a labor of love but totally worth it.
      Another thing on my cooking bucket list is Italian sausage. My late grandfather used to own an Italian meat market and he was known for his Italian sausage. They never wrote a recipe down, just tasted the raw meat for seasoning. I will recreate it one day!

    2. Hey!! Tried your recipe yesterday and they were a hit! I skipped the bread crumbs so they didn’t hold their shape as well but they delicious! Thank you!!

Leave a Reply

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