Rolling out meatballs for a family can take a while. Forming them into giant spheres saves time and makes for easy portioning.
Baking is probably the most efficient way to cook the meatballs when they are this enormous. If you prefer meatballs to be dropped into the sauce to cook, that works, too. Just make sure that they are cooked all the way through.
The sauce is simple and requires only a few minutes of hands-on time. You can let it simmer all day if you wish, but that is not a requirement for a non-complex sauce like this. It is ready to eat almost as soon as it is made. It freezes well, too.
Monster Meatballs with Marinara Sauce
Servings 8
Ingredients
- For the sauce:
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- pinch red pepper flake optional
- 2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp dried basil OR 1 bunch fresh basil
- 1-2 tsp baking soda optional
- For the meatballs:
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp parsley
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 3 eggs
- 2 lbs lean ground meat ground turkey, lean ground beef, etc.
Instructions
- For the sauce:
- Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat, and add the garlic
- Cook, stirring constantly for 30 seconds.
- Add the tomato paste and break it up with a wooden spoon so that it melts into the oil. The oil should turn bright orange. Cook for another minute or two.
- Add a pinch of red pepper flake (optional).
- When the oil is orange and the garlic is fragrant, add the tomato sauce.
- Add the spices and sugar. If you are using fresh basil, add that in, too.
- Allow to simmer, stirring occasionally.
- If you need to cut the acidity, add a bit of baking soda while the sauce is simmering.
- If you used fresh basil, remove it before eating the sauce.
- For the meatballs:
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
- Dump the breadcrumbs in a bowl along with the spices and parmesan cheese.
- Pour the milk on top of the breadcrumb mixture and add the eggs.
- Whip this mixture together loosely so that the eggs are beaten and the breadcrumbs are wet. Then allow it to sit for a few minutes.
- Add the ground meat, and with a loose hand, blend the mixture together.
- Divide the meat into 8 equal portions and roll into balls.
- Place the meatballs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until the internal temperature reaches 160° (roughly 35 minutes).
- Take the meatballs out of the oven, plate them and top with sauce. Top with parsley and parmesan cheese.
Notes
Nutrition estimate is for one meatball using 93/7 lean ground turkey (1/8 of the recipe).
285 calories – 14 fat – 10 carbs – 31.5 protein
No need to panic over the sugar in the sauce. There isn’t a lot of it in there. The small amount adds a very nice note that you can’t just seem to replicate otherwise. I haven’t tried stevia or any of those no calorie sweeteners. Try that at your own risk.
There should be enough sauce leftover to toss with pasta (or zoodles, if you have a zoodle-ifier).