Tender beef and pork meatballs enriched with a swirl of garlic-herb butter, simmered in a simple San Marzano tomato sauce.
This is a classic Italian-American meatball preparation -- a beef and pork blend bound with breadcrumbs soaked in milk (a panade, which keeps the meatballs tender) and simmered gently in tomato sauce rather than fried first, letting them finish cooking directly in the sauce so they absorb its flavor. The addition here is a spoonful of garlic-herb butter worked into the meat mixture, adding richness beyond what egg and breadcrumbs alone provide. The technique that separates tender meatballs from tough ones is the panade -- soaking bread or breadcrumbs in milk before mixing it into the meat -- combined with gentle, minimal mixing by hand. Overworking ground meat develops the proteins too much and makes for a dense, bouncy meatball rather than a tender one. Simmered low and slow in a simple sauce of San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, and basil, these meatballs are Sunday-dinner Italian-American cooking at its most comforting, served over pasta or piled onto crusty bread for meatball subs.
Serves 6
Mix softened butter with minced garlic and chopped basil until combined. Set aside.
Soak breadcrumbs in milk for 5 minutes until fully absorbed.
Gently combine beef, pork, soaked breadcrumbs, egg, Parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt, and half the herb butter. Mix minimally by hand until just combined.
Form into 20 meatballs, about golf ball size. Refrigerate 15 minutes to firm up.
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook onion 6-7 minutes until soft, then add hand-crushed tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes.
Gently add meatballs to the simmering sauce, cover, and cook 25-30 minutes, turning once, until cooked through.
Stir in remaining herb butter and torn basil off the heat. Serve over pasta or with crusty bread.
Soak breadcrumbs in milk before mixing into the meat -- this panade technique is the single biggest factor in tender, not tough, meatballs.
Mix the meat mixture as little as possible; overmixing develops the proteins and makes meatballs dense.
Simmer the meatballs directly in the sauce rather than frying them first -- they finish cooking gently and take on more of the sauce's flavor.
Add a handful of grated Pecorino along with the Parmesan for a sharper, saltier flavor.
Use all beef or all pork if you prefer a single-meat meatball, adjusting salt slightly.
Bake the shaped meatballs at 200C/400F for 15 minutes before adding to the sauce if you prefer a firmer exterior.
Refrigerate meatballs and sauce together up to 4 days; the flavor deepens overnight. Freezes well up to 3 months. Reheat gently on the stovetop over low heat.
Italian-American meatballs, larger and often served with pasta, differ from the smaller polpette traditionally eaten in Italy as a separate course; the tomato-simmered version popularized by Italian immigrant families in the early 20th century became one of the defining dishes of Italian-American cuisine.
Yes, browning them in a skillet first adds extra flavor from the fond, but simmering raw meatballs directly in sauce is the more traditional, gentler approach and yields very tender results.
This usually means not enough binder (egg and breadcrumbs) was used, or they weren't chilled before going into the sauce -- chilling helps them hold their shape during the gentle simmer.
Yes, both cooked meatballs in sauce and shaped raw meatballs freeze well -- freeze raw meatballs on a tray first, then transfer to a bag to keep them from sticking together.
Per serving (320g / 11.3 oz) · 6 servings total
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