The Best Meatballs Ever!

Submitted by Dawn Michelle

"This is an old Italian recipe. There is no frying involved. I guarantee you'll love these melt in your mouth meatballs!"

 

• Ready In: 30mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup onion, chopped
• 1 large egg
• 1⁄2 cup breadcrumbs (i use italian style)
• 2 slices white bread (crusts removed)
• 1 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 cups water
• tomato sauce, of choice, for stewing

directions

1. Place tomato sauce in large pot on the stove on medium heat.
2. Soak crustless bread in medium bowl with the two cups of water about 2 minutes until bread is totally moistened; squeeze out excess water.
3. In a large bowl combine bread and all other ingredients except water, mix well with hands until all are combined. Add water if needed.
4. Transfer onto plastic wrap and flatten meat to about 1/4 inch (this is an easy method to make meatballs eaqual in size, but optional of course; score meat mixture into 2 inch squares, (like a checker board).
5. Roll'em up and place them in sauce.
6. Stew in sauce for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Reviews

[dawnmichellel]

Very moist and delicious!! Not at all soupy! Be sure to squeeze the bread after soaking and don't add the water. I added a small handful of shredded mozzerella to the mix and these meatballs came out AWESOME!!

 

[Scotland]

Meatballs were good but the recipe is not. I followed the measurements to the letter and what I got was a big bowl of meat soup. 2 additional cups of bread crumbs and 4 additional slices of bread (not wet) and things came together. Because we didn't want them to fall apart in the sauce we decided to bake them in the oven at 350 for 15-20 min.

 

[mosma]

YUMMY!! I never bake/fry my meatballs first and I was looking for a recipe that would give me moist meatballs as mine were never perfect...this is it! The secret must be in the white bread because that's the only thing different from my method. I used fresh garlic and a little fresh basil I had frozen/chopped and some dried to make up the difference. I used my own sauce. This is my new go-to recipe for meatballs. Thanks so much for posting!

 

[oriana63]

The meatballs were delicious and tasty. However, his recipe can be varied using tinned tomatoes with tomato paste. Also can be be baked in the oven then accompanied by a slasa. Great for picnocs or kids lunch boxes.

 

[zavea]

These meatballs were really easy to make and my family loved them. I only used 1/2 cup basil intead of 1 cup, though because I thought 1 cup was too much. They were softer than most other recipes I have tried, and some even fell apart in the sauce. They were really tasty, though, and I will definitley be using this recipe again.