Giant Italian easy meatball recipe for healthy, large baked meatballs. No breadcrumbs and my kids think anything jumbo is the best – I tend to agree! Serve with your favorite spaghetti sauce over pasta, or make delicious meatball sandwiches with super easy homemade buns.
My kids love homemade meatballs… and ground beef taco meat (which is PACKED with veggies) and homemade breakfast sausage and the easiest burgers on the planet. So it didn’t surprise me when my daughter asked to make BIG meatballs. There was a restaurant we loved to eat at in California where you could order three giant meatballs as an appetizer. They were big, juicy and definitely filled your belly. She wanted THAT kind of meatball. So here’s what we did for a big, giant Italian easy meatball recipe!
These giant meatballs are perfect for those who…
- Love meatballs. If you don’t love meatballs, you won’t like this giant easy meatball recipe. Sorry.
- Like Italian food. Nothing beats a giant meatball that sits on a mound of spaghetti, covered with marinara. Who’s with me?
- Need easy dinners. Use your stand mixer to mix up the meatball mixture in no time. Weigh the meatballs if you want, or eyeball it – your call. 20 minutes in the oven and dinner is DONE.
- Like freezer meals. I have four giant meatballs sitting in my freezer, AS I TYPE, and I can’t wait to NOT have to cook dinner one night next week.
- Batch cook like a pro. If you regularly make 6x batches of blender cinnamon waffles, have multiple rotations of sheet pan pancakes going at one time and find it impossible to make no less than a triple batch of blender banana bread muffins, then you’re going to love these giant meatballs.
Giant Italian Easy Meatball Recipe
Surprisingly, here’s really not a whole lot to this recipe. But then again, sometimes the super simple recipes (like slow cooker carnitas or slow cooker pot roast) are some of the best one. Still, let’s talk about what ingredients make these giant Italian meatballs so special.
Easy Meatball Recipe Ingredients
- ground beef (or your choice of ground meat)
- salt
- pepper
- onion powder
- garlic powder
- dried Italian seasoning
- fresh spinach or kale, chopped finely
- eggs
- flour (I used all-purpose)
- Parmesan cheese, shredded (using the rind, if possible)
Notes on Ingredients
Ground Beef… Or….
I used two pounds of grass-fed ground beef (that I got from Butcher Box.) You can easily mix/match with whatever ground meat you have and/or love… veal, pork, venison, turkey, and chicken would all be good options. It is important that you use meat that has some fat on it for flavor, so I recommend subbing just one pound of ground beef for a super lean meat. Otherwise your giant Italian meatballs might come out dry, and that’s no fun.
Butcher Box delivers grass-fed beef, pasture-raised and organic chicken, and heritage pork directly to your front door each month. You can read my honest review on Butcher Box here, and my post on how to make Butcher Box worth the cost!
Vegetable(s)!
I added quite a bit of finely chopped spinach to these meatballs because, why not? You could probably add other vegetables, like grated carrot, onion, celery, mushrooms… You can also add non-vegetable items like oats or lentils or beans, if you’re looking to stretch your ground beef as far as you possibly can. (More tips on stretching your meat HERE.) I’d recommend pre-cooking your vegetables so that they don’t seep water in the cooking process (and thereby possibly making your meatballs NOT stick together).
Dried Spices
Fresh spices are really great in dishes like rosemary olive oil flatbread, but we’re going the dried route in this giant Italian easy meatball recipe for three reasons:
- It’s easy.
- It’s cheap.
- They’re dry.
Obviously we’re going to go the easy route whenever we can. And we’re also going to go the cheap route too. We’re going the dry route to help maintain that proper moisture balance that is OH SO IMPORTANT when you’re making meatballs. Too much moisture up front means soggy meatballs. Too little moisture means dry meatballs. Neither of these two options are desireable.
How to Make This Easy Meatball Recipe Step by Step
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
Step 2. Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix until all everything is evenly distributed and mixed well. Alternatively, combine the ingredients in a large bowl and mix using your hands or a wooden spoon.
Step 3. Either using a scale to weigh 4 oz of mixture OR eyeballing it, make 10 even-sized meatballs and place them inside a 9″x9″ baking dish OR a 9″x13″ baking dish.
Step 4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Step 5. Turn the oven on broil and set the timer for 2 minutes.
Step 6. When the timer beeps, use a pair of tongs to turn the meatballs over and broil again for 2 minutes.
Serve with your favorite marinara or spaghetti sauce!
How To Serve Italian Meatballs
We served our giant meatballs a few different ways… over spaghetti with hearty spaghetti sauce (very traditional), over rice noodles (Paleo version) and over spaghetti squash noodles (a la Whole30). If you make homemade hamburger buns (which are SO good), you could make meatball sandwiches.
- Chop up leftover meatballs and put them in a salad (topped with ranch dressing of course).
- Or you can put them on pizza (here’s our favorite pizza crust, and a SUPER easy pizza sauce).
- Put them in soup. I suggest classic minestrone – YUM!
- Or use them in a casserole… slow cooker lasagna would be a great choice!
- Use them in chili. I already have slow cooker pumpkin chili on our meal plan!
- Or as I mentioned before, freeze them whole and pull them out when you need a FAST weeknight dinner.
No matter how you eat them, you CANNOT go wrong with this giant Italian easy meatball recipe!
Recipe Notes
- I got my ground beef from Butcher Box. Right now get the free ultimate KETO bundle on your first order from Butcher Box!
- I use this stand mixer with a scraper attachment to mix up my meatballs. (I use my mixer for all kinds of things!)
- Because I like even sized meatballs so I weigh mine with this kitchen scale. (I also weigh my tortillas and breakfast sausage.)
- If you use a larger baking dish you can line it with a silpat mat like these. It will help clean up go a bit quicker.
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Giant Italian Easy Meatball Recipe
Giant Italian easy meatball recipe for healthy, large baked meatballs. No breadcrumbs and my kids think anything jumbo is the best – I tend to agree!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 10 meatballs 1x
- Category: Main Meals
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef (or your choice of ground meat)
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1/2 Tbsp pepper
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 Tbsp dried Italian seasoning
- 2 cups fresh spinach or kale, chopped finely
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup flour (I used all-purpose)
- 4 oz Parmesan cheese, shredded (using the rind, if possible)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix until all everything is evenly distributed and mixed well. Alternatively, combine the ingredients in a large bowl and mix using your hands or a wooden spoon.
- Either using a scale to weigh 4 oz of mixture OR eyeballing it, make 10 even-sized meatballs and place them inside a 9″x9″ baking dish OR a 9″x13″ baking dish.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Turn the oven on broil and set the timer for 2 minutes.
- When the timer beeps, use a pair of tongs to turn the meatballs over and broil again for 2 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite marinara or spaghetti sauce!
Notes
- I got my ground beef from Butcher Box. Right now get the free ultimate KETO bundle on your first order from Butcher Box!
- I use this stand mixer with a scraper attachment to mix up my meatballs. (I use my mixer for all kinds of things!)
- Because I like even sized meatballs so I weigh mine with this kitchen scale. (I also weigh my tortillas and breakfast sausage.)
- If you use a larger baking dish you can line it with a silpat mat like these. It will help clean up go a bit quicker.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 large meatball
- Calories: 116
They came out a bit salty. I think it should be a teaspoon of salt instead of a tablespoon.
Can you please give me the carb and protein value for the meatballs?
Hi Jubillee,
We only list calories. You can check a free online app for full nutritional content. We don’t list nutritional content because recipes/ingredients vary so much from person to person. It’s best to use a calculator for your specific recipe and ingredients. Hope this helps.
I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly. This recipe is a definite keeper. Thank you.
I’m so confused by this recipe, surely 1 TBSP of salt is a typo? And after 15 mins at 350, mine were barely off raw (yes, same size as called for – 2 lbs of meat into 10 meatballs). I had to raise my oven (which works fine, btw) to 400 and cook another 15 to get them to 160 internally. I’ll definitely try them again, but with some major tweaks!
Hi Kelly!
We’re so sorry that it didn’t work for you as per the recipe. The recipe is correct as listed, but of course, we recognize that every oven is different. Did you switch the oven to broil (after the meatballs baked for 15 minutes at 350) and broil the meatballs for 2 minutes on each side, for a total of 4 minutes? This step is listed as the last step on the recipe card. Let us know how it works out if you happen to try it again this way. 🙂
Very good recipe. My family loved them! Agree with an earlier comment on cook time due to size. Due to their size, I cooked them at 375 for 30 minutes prior to broiling each side for 2 minutes per side resulting in an internal temperature of 155. Will use again! Thank you!
Cooking them now…
15 min at 400deg = raw meatballs (350 seemed low)
Giving it another 10 at 425 (joining in with the frozen garlic bread)
My 8 year old son and I made these tonight. My picky 6 year old daughter even loved them. What a hit! I’m glad we have another meal in the recipe box that my kids can make. Thanks for sharing.
You’re very welcome, Holly!
Made this and they are awesome. Very tasty. Think that there may be a typo on the amount of salt. 1 tbsp is too much. Will make again with a lot less.
Do you freeze them cooked or raw?
Either or!
I was excited to try these; especially when I saw your note that putting them on spaghetti squash would make them Whole30 compliant, but then I read the ingredients….NOPE. Flour and cheese in them. Do you just omit the flour and cheese or do you need to add anything in to make them as good without those ingredients?
You can omit Heidi! Or you can use almond flour if you find issues with them binding (but I’ve made them without both, without issues.)
These are delicious! I have made them several times for my family, and I’m getting ready to take them to another family. I use almond flour instead of AP flour, but other than that I don’t change a thing. We serve over spaghetti squash with marinara. Thanks for the recipe!
You’re so very welcome!
Have you ever made these without the parmesan cheese? Our daughter is dairy free so we would need to eliminate that ingredient.
Yes! I usually omit if we don’t have it. 🙂
I’ll be trying this out this weekend 🙂 I typically use 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb ground pork when I make meatloaf, so I will probably do that here. Also plan to add some chopped fresh parsley in place of some of the spinach. Will also use almond meal instead of flour because the husband eats keto 😉 So excited to try these!