These meatballs with sausage and ground beef are easy to make and so tasty. A blend of Italian sausage and lean hamburger gives these tender meatballs incredible flavor.
Instead of frying, in this simple recipe the flavorful Italian meatballs are baked in the oven until golden brown. I like to simmer them in spaghetti sauce before serving, which makes both the sauce and the meatballs even more yummy.
My favorite technique for preparing homemade Italian meatballs also happens to be incredibly simple! You’ll love making meatball sliders, pasta dishes and appetizers with these perfect meatballs.
For more easy dinner recipes, you might enjoy Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken and Crock Pot Southwest Chicken Chili.
Ingredients and Substitions
Here’s what you’ll need to make these oven cooked meat balls. (Scroll down to the recipe card for full directions.)
1 tablespoon butter – You can use salted or unsalted butter, depending on what you have and your preference.
1/4 cup finely chopped onion – Yellow or white onions are fine.
1 large or 2 small cloves fresh garlic – Add more or less, depending on your tastebuds! (The flavor of fresh is best, but if you’re in a hurry you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder.)
1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage – You can use sweet or spicy Italian sausage. If you don’t have bulk sausage, you can buy link sausage and remove the casings.
1/2 pound ground beef – I like ground chuck for this recipe, but you can use regular ground beef, too. I usually get the 97% lean ground beef for less shrinkage. You can also substitute ground turkey for the beef.
1 slice of bread – The bread acts like a binder with the egg and meat. Feel free to use your favorite bread for this easy meatball recipe.
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 Tips for the Best Oven Cooked Meatballs
These are my three secrets for delicious meatballs that are browned on the outside and tender on the inside:
Secret #1: Most meatball recipes call for raw onion to be added to the mixture, but I prefer to saute the onion in butter first along with a little minced garlic. This pre-cooking step allows the onion and garlic to “melt” into the mixture as the meatballs cook, resulting in a pleasing caramelized flavor.
Secret #2: I like to use a blend of half Italian sausage and half ground beef. The Italian sausage adds a little zing (and admittedly, a little extra fat) to the ground beef, taking the meatballs from sodden to spectacular.
Secret #3: For this easy recipe, instead of laboriously trying to evenly brown the meatballs on all sides and dealing with spattering fat in a frying pan, I simply shape them and bake them in a hot oven. After just 20 minutes, they’re miraculously browned and perfectly cooked inside.
Step by Step Instructions with Photos
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray it lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook 1/4 cup chopped onion just until it turns translucent. Add 1 clove minced garlic and continue cooking for about 90 seconds, until the mixture barely begins to brown. Remove from heat and reserve.
Place the slice of bread in a food processor and process into fine crumbs.
Next, combine a half pound each of ground Italian sausage and ground beef, the bread crumbs, an egg, a teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a large mixing bowl until well combined.
(No matter how hard you try, it’s hard to make a bowl of meatball mixture look photogenic.)
Use a tablespoon to shape the meat mixture into golfball-sized meatballs. (You can also use a cookie scoop for shaping.)
Place meatballs on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven until browned and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. You can see how the onion becomes caramelized after cooking. Yum.
Storing and Reheating Instructions
Leftover meatballs can be stored, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
To reheat, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Arrange the meatballs on a foil-lined baking sheet. Cook in the oven until heated through, about 8 minutes.
To freeze cooked meatballs, cool completely to room temperature before freezing. Arrange on a baking sheet and freeze. Remove frozen meatballs to a sealed airtight container or freezer bag, and freeze for up to 2 months.
To defrost frozen meatballs, place in the refrigerator and allow to thaw overnight before using. Follow reheating instructions above.
How to Serve Baked Italian Meatballs
You can add the baked Italian meatballs to a spaghetti sauce like I did in the photo at the top of this post. Just add a few cups of your favorite sauce to a skillet, bring to a simmer, add the meatballs and cook for about 7-8 minutes. Serve over spaghetti or your favorite pasta.
Or, you can toast some buns, sprinkle with a little Parmesan or mozzarella cheese, and make meatball sandwiches.
Meatballs are also great sliced and arranged on homemade pizza.
If you enjoy this Italian sausage meatballs recipe, please click on the stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below to leave a rating! It helps us so much, and we love reading your comments, too!
Shall we make some beautiful meatballs together? Here’s the printable recipe card:
Meatballs with Sausage and Ground Beef
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Small skillet
- Large mixing bowl
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 large clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/2 pound bulk Italian sausage
- 1/2 pound ground chuck (or ground beef)
- 1 slice bread
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease or spray with cooking spray.
- Heat the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. When it melts, add the onion and cook until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 90 seconds. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, mix together the sausage and ground beef. Pulse the bread in a food processor or blender to make crumbs and sprinkle over the meat mixture. Add the onion mixture, egg, salt, and pepper and combine until well blended.
- Use a tablespoon to form the mixture into balls. Arrange on the prepared baking sheet and bake until the meatballs are lightly browned and cooked all the way through, about 20 minutes. Cool the baking sheet on a wire rack. Makes about 18 to 20 meatballs.
Notes
Nutrition
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Eliza Cross is the creator of Happy Simple Living, where she shares ideas to help busy people simplify cooking, gardening, holidays, home, and money. She is also the award-winning author of 17 cookbooks, including Small Bites and 101 Things To Do With Bacon.
You know, not only have I never made meatballs, I’ve never even eaten them! Not sure what that’s about, it’s not like I have some anti-meatball thing going, I’ve just never been offered them. Perhaps I’ll give this a try…
Hi! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I absolutely love it! I’ll be making it for my second time and am quadrupling the recipe. I know you can freeze them, but what’s your recommendation for reheating from frozen?
The recipe was really so easy to understand and turned out really delicious. Everyone loved it.
I rather use bread crumbs…for 1lb ground beef and 1lb ground sausage, how much bread crumbs should be used ? *I will be following the rest of your recipe for the meatballs. Thank you !!
Anna, great question! You can substitute 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs for the bread in the recipe. I have done this, and the meatballs turn out great. If your bread crumbs are seasoned, you may need to reduce the salt a bit in the recipe. Enjoy! ~Eliza
My family love meatballs and this recipe is delicious. I love the idea of baking the meatballs before simmering in the sauce too.
So delicious! This is one of my daughter’s favorites. The meatballs were so flavorful.
These meatballs are so simple but so flavorful! Will make again for sure.
Oh, do those meatballs look marvelous! Love how easy they are to make and that they are baked in the oven. Makes for easier clean up.
I made these the other night because the kids wanted meatball subs and they were a huge hit! They loved that there is sausage in them as I usually make mine with all beef. So delicious and added to our regular menu rotation!
Super simple and tasty. Cooking the onion beforehand is a good tip, makes them blend better with the meat. Only thing I changed was subbing crushed ritz crackers for bread (almost one full sleeve), like my mom used to when she’d make meatballs – I wasn’t sure the rest of her recipe and this worked perfect, Thanks!
Crushed Ritz crackers sound like a really tasty substitution! It’s so fun to hear that you modified the recipe to make the meatballs like your mom did. Thank you for a great comment. ~Eliza
I just finished making them and they are in the oven. I love how easy this recipe is I am making my sauce early tomorrow and I will be cooking more meatballs I used lots of hamburger and Italian sausage. I will let you know how they taste tomorrow
Pamela, thank you so much for letting me know that you tried the recipe. Hope your meatballs were absolutely scrumptious! ~Eliza
First time making meatballs, I used breadcrumbs instead of the bread. Overall very good. I will make again. We love spice so may add spice to meatballs. Cooked perfectly in the oven..
My grandmother’s nickname was Liza, and it’s nice to “meet” you! So glad you enjoyed the meatballs recipe, and I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment. ~Eliza
I make these all the time. Meatball subs for dinner, here we come! I go ahead and double the recipe since Italian sausage comes by the pound, and then freeze the leftover meatballs for a quick already cooked dinner later – IF there are any left. This is a really good recipe, I definitely recommend.
Your comment made my day. Thank you so much, and I’m glad you like the recipe. Thanks for your freezing tips, too!
I make meatballs all the time… Like I definitely love the meatball sub… I’m actually going to try this recipe tonight because it sounds yummy!!
Kathy, it’s nice to meet another meatball fan! My family loves the combination of Italian sausage and ground beef in these meatballs. And you might like these yummy meatball sliders, too: https://www.happysimpleliving.com/hawaiian-roll-meatball-sliders/
I made these (the x2 recipe) but added a couple of shots of Worcestershire sauce and a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese. They’re delicious but next time I’ll cut the amount of pepper, as they’re a bit bity, and I forgot that the Italian sausage (mild) has a little heat as well. Also, I baked 40 of them in the first batch and probably have another 15-20 to bake, as I don’t make big meatballs. Overall, this recipe is a keeper and will be made often here!! Thanks for your recipe!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with the recipe! I love that you made it your own by modifying the ingredients, and am so glad it’s a keeper! ~Eliza
This is my second time making these meatballs and I don’t think I’m going back to any other meatball recipe! I randomly came across the recipe a couple months ago and decided to give it go… the best meatballs I’ve ever made/had! I obviously added in my own herbs, seasonings into the meat mixture, along with some fresh thinly grated Parmesan. *chefs kiss* but aside from that, I followed the recipe to a complete T and they instantly became a household favourite for me and my partner!
Derrick, your kind words mean so much and I’m really happy you love the recipe. These meatballs are one of my family’s favorites, too, and I’ve been making them for years and years. I’m so glad to hear you added your own seasonings and made the recipe your own! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a great comment. ~Eliza