Oven Baked Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

4.75 from 4 votes

These meatballs are comfort food at its best, and are a favorite dinner for young and old.

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian, Western

Keyword: meatballs with tomato sauce, oven baked meatballs, spaghetti and meatballs

Servings:

Calories: 418kcal

1 onion large, finely chopped and divided in half
1.1 lb minced meat I use a mix pork and veal, but all one or the other is fine
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs loosely packed, or about ½ cup dried breadcrumbs plus a few tablespoons of water to hydrate the mixture
1 cup parmesan cheese finely grated (optional but highly recommended, it’s the difference between a so-so meatball and a great one
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic minced
28 oz tomato passata 700ml or a can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F, combination steam setting. If your oven has variable steam settings, use 50% (if not, don’t worry! Just set to your oven to combi steam and don’t worry about the percentages).
Combine half the onion with the minced meat, breadcrumbs, cheese and egg in a bowl and mix with clean hands to combine. Form the mixture into approximately 24 tablespoon-sized meatballs and place onto a solid pan. My absolute favourite tool for this is a cookie/ice cream scoop (the smallest one from this set), because it’s fast and you’ll get a consistent meatball size.
Cook the meatballs until they’re beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. While they’re cooking, mix the remaining onion and the garlic in a small bowl.
When the meatballs are browned, remove pan from oven, move the meatballs to one side of the pan and add the remaining onion and the garlic, mixing with any pan juices and spreading them out to make a thin, even layer. Return pan to oven until the onion and garlic are softened, about 5 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C/320°Add the tomato passata or crushed tomatoes and half a cup of water to the pan, then mix to combine everything.
Cook for a further 30 minutes, giving it a mix halfway through and adding a little extra water if the sauce looks too thick. Serve the meatballs with cooked spaghetti and top with extra parmesan cheese and basil leaves.

Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F, fan forced/convection setting.
Combine half the onion with the minced meat, breadcrumbs, cheese and egg in a bowl and mix with clean hands to combine. Form the mixture into approximately 24 tablespoon-sized meatballs and place onto a solid pan. My absolute favourite tool for this is a cookie/ice cream scoop, (the smallest one from this set), because it’s fast and you get a consistent meatball size.
Cook the meatballs until they’re beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. While they’re cooking, mix the remaining onion and the garlic in a small bowl.
When the meatballs are browned, remove pan from oven, move the meatballs to one side of the pan and add the remaining onion and the garlic, mixing with any pan juices and spreading them out to make a thin, even layer. Return to oven until the onion and garlic are softened, about 5 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/350°Add the tomato passata or crushed tomatoes and a cup of water to the pan, then mix to combine.
Cook for a further 30-40 minutes, giving it a mix halfway through and adding extra water if the sauce looks too thick. Serve the meatballs with cooked spaghetti and top with extra parmesan chees

You can absolutely make these and eat them as soon as they’re cooked. That’s what we do, though most of the time I make a double batch for a second easy dinner later in the week, and I always think the leftovers have a better balance. If you can give them a day or two in the fridge, the meatballs get a chance to sit in the sauce and let all the flavours mingle together.
I always use smooth tomato passata (puree) to make my sauce, though crushed canned tomatoes are more traditional. It’s just a matter of preference, so go with whatever you’d normally use when cooking a tomato-based sauce.
If you’d like to scale these up to make enough for a crowd, you can easily double or triple the recipe. I’d recommend if you’re making an enormous batch that you bake the meatballs in one (or two) pans, and the sauce in a separate one (a deeper pan is perfect for the sauce in this instance), before combining the two at the end of cooking.
These meatballs freeze well, just make sure they’re well-covered by the sauce to prevent freezer burn. Thaw them fully in the refrigerator before reheating, otherwise you’ll find yourself bashing up an icy mass in a pan, trying to thaw dinner without turning the meatballs into Bolognese (ask me how I know this).
You’ll see there are methods for both combi steam and conventional ovens here, so you can choose whichever suits.