I’ve made a lot of meatball recipes in my day. While I love to cook them in a skillet, nothing is easier than making baked meatballs in the oven. You can make a big batch of meatballs so easily with my basic baked meatball recipe, so it’s ideal for feeding a crowd, or you can make extra to freeze for later (and they do freeze beautifully). Plus! They turn out tender, moist, and so flavorful.
Why You’ll Love Baked Meatballs
- Baked meatballs feed a big crowd, easily. You can even ask friends to jump in and roll the meatballs with you!
- They are a great freezer meal! These freeze beautifully (instructions for freezer are below, and in the recipe).
- A lot of picky eaters eat them! Who doesn’t love moist meatballs with tomato sauce?
For more easy Italian recipes try homemade spaghetti sauce, or this simple three ingredient tomato sauce.
Baked Meatball Ingredients + Substitutions
- Ground meat: My favorite combination of ground meats for meatballs is ground beef (80/20, for richness) and ground pork. You could also use all-beef if you prefer.
- Eggs: Eggs are the binder, helping the meatballs hold their shape as you roll and bake them.
- Italian-style breadcrumbs: I love Italian breadcrumbs because they already have Italian herbs mixed in, so they give a ton of flavor to the meatball mixture with zero extra effort. Use gluten-free panko to make these meatballs GF.
- Parmesan cheese: Freshly-grated Parm adds tons of umami richness to the meatballs. Don’t use pre-shredded, you really need the fine powder that comes from using a microplane grater.
- Seasonings: Salt, pepper, garlic and parsley.
- Tomato sauce: This can be as basic as opening a jar of store-bought sauce, or you can use my simple marinara recipe.
How Long To Bake Meatballs
Keep an eye on the meatballs as they bake, but they usually take about 20 minutes to cook in a 400°F oven. The cook time depends a little bit on the size of your meatballs, so it’s always a great idea to keep an eye on them and test for doneness when you think they look ready. I tested this recipe with meatballs that are about 2 tablespoons of meat mixture per meatball, and that’s my preferred size. Some people use a #30 cookie scoop to measure so that their meatballs are exactly the same size, but I usually just eyeball it.
Whatever size you roll yours, be sure to be consistent in the size so that all of your meatballs are done cooking at the same time. Why? Uneven sizes make for uneven cooking, meaning some meatballs could be underdone, while others are overcooked.
How To Serve Baked Meatballs
- Over pasta! You could even stir the finished baked meatballs into our easy vodka sauce pasta recipe, for a majorly indulgent dinner.
- With an Italian salad, and lots of good bread to dip in the tomato sauce.
- With fresh garlic bread, or even our indulgent pull-apart cheese bread.
How Many Meatballs To Make Per Person
This depends a little bit on how hungry everyone is, and what you serve the meatballs with. I usually serve the baked meatballs over pasta for a more filling meal, and plan for about three meatballs per person, or two for little kids. If you want to be really generous, plan for four meatballs per person.
How To Freeze Baked Meatballs
Mix the meatball ingredients together and shape the meatballs. After you shape them (but before you bake them) pop the entire sheet pan in the freezer. Once the meatballs have frozen through (it takes about 3 hours, minimum) then transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to cook them, no need to thaw, just bake them from frozen in a 400°F oven for 25 minutes.
More Easy Meatball Dinner Ideas
Weeknight Dinner Inspiration, This Way
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