Italian Meatballs with the Best Sauce

This is the ultimate Italian meatball recipe made with the best homemade tomato sauce. Tender, incredibly juicy, and generously sized!

Our Italian meatballs guarantee the perfect texture. They are soft and never too dense in the middle—they almost melt in your mouth. Not to mention, the rich, homemade sauce they cook in is outrageously delicious! We cannot wait for you to try this recipe.

Serve them with noodles to make classic spaghetti and meatballs, pair them with fresh homemade pasta, or simply serve them on a plate next to a big slice of focaccia bread to soak up every last drop of that amazing sauce. And to really lean into the Italian theme, consider adding fresh Caprese salad to the table and finishing your meal with an authentic tiramisu.

Key Ingredients

• Ground Beef and Pork: After testing these meatballs a few times, we dialed into a combination of ground beef and ground pork. Go for slightly leaner ground beef (we like it to have around 15% fat), then mix in higher-fat ground pork to add extra flavor.
• Onion and Garlic: No Italian dish is complete without these! They add so much flavor to your meatballs.
• Saltine Crackers and Milk: While many authentic Italian recipes use bread or fresh breadcrumbs as a binder, we go off the beaten track and use crushed saltine crackers and milk. Saltines add a wonderful lightness to the mixture (they do the same in our meatloaf recipe and in this simple meatball recipe)
• Italian Herbs: A combination of fennel, Italian seasoning, and fresh parsley gives these meatballs an authentic flavor. We especially love the fennel in this recipe.
• Parmesan Cheese: We use salt in the meatball mixture itself, but also love seasoning this with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. It adds so much flavor.
• The Best Meatball Sauce: You can use store-bought sauce, but for a genuinely delicious dish, try our simple, homemade tomato sauce in the recipe below. It’s perfect with these Italian meatballs and incredibly easy to make. We also love using our homemade pasta sauce or marinara sauce.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Italian Meatballs

We’ve made this recipe so many times now, and we are always amazed by how delicious and tender they turn out. Here’s a brief overview of how to make them:

1. Cook the onions, garlic, and fennel in some olive oil until soft and fragrant.
2. Make the meatball mixture with the ground meat, cooked onions and garlic, and the remaining meatball ingredients.
3. Shape the mixture into generously sized balls, then bake them until they are browned on top (but not quite done in the middle).
4. As they bake, make the easy tomato sauce (or warm up your favorite store-bought sauce).
5. Add the partially baked meatballs directly to the sauce and continue baking in the oven until they are cooked completely through.

Our Secrets for Making Italian Meatballs with the Best Sauce

Tip 1: Make big meatballs. You can always tell an amazing Italian restaurant when they have meatballs on the menu. Not meatballs with pasta, but just the meatballs (sometimes sold as polpette). They can stand alone. That’s why our recipe calls for making four big meatballs.

Not only are they impressive on the table, but because they are so large, they stay tender and juicy in the middle. Now, if you’d prefer to make smaller ones, you can! We did just that in our spaghetti and meatballs recipe, which uses the same meatball mixture.

Tip 2: Start them in the oven without sauce. The trick to these big, juicy meatballs is to make the mixture, form them, and then bake them without any sauce until they take on a light golden crust. Partially baking them in the oven gives the meatballs a golden brown exterior while keeping them completely juicy on the inside.

Tip 3: Finish cooking them in the sauce. While the meatballs bake, we make our simple but incredibly flavorful tomato sauce (you can watch us make it in the video). You’ll make it with shallots, garlic, a splash of wine, stock, crushed tomatoes, and fresh basil. We love placing our partially baked meatballs right into the simmering sauce. Then either let them finish cooking in the sauce on the stove, or transfer to the oven and finish them there.

Ways to Serve Italian Meatballs

Our favorite way to serve these big, juicy meatballs is on a plate with a big spoonful of that incredible sauce. Add a slice of focaccia or garlic bread, and we’re happy! Beyond that, you can serve with buttered noodles or fresh pasta, make sandwiches, or add a meatball and some sauce to a bowl of creamy polenta or grits!