Easy homemade Italian meatballs baked in tangy marinara and topped with gobs of buttery, gooey mozzarella perfect with pasta, roasted vegetables and zoodles.
My new favorite meatball meal is this one where hearty, rustic meatballs are smothered tangy tomato sauce then cooked with mozzarella! And if you are in a pinch for time, you can use frozen meatballs too – I won’t tell!
I typically serve this with some sort of hearty green vegetable like Roasted Brussels Sprouts or Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli, pasta or zoodles (zucchini noodles) and some good crusty bread to soak up all that cheese and sauce.
I mentioned this before when I originally published my meatball recipe but I really, really don’t like frozen meatballs. I hate the corky texture they have and they’re just so artificial tasting.
Ingredients
Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella
- 20-24 Italian meatballs, cooked (recipe below)
- 1 24-oz. jar marinara sauce
- 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella, shredded
Italian Meatballs
- 1 onion, grated
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 pounds ground beef (80/20 works best)
- 1/2 cup Italian dried bread crumbs
Instructions
Baked Meatballs with Mozzarella:
- Spoon half of the marinara sauce into a large oven-proof frying pan or 13×9 baking dish. Arrange meatballs in pan then cover with remaining sauce. Cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes at 375 degrees or until sauce is heated through.
- Remove pan from oven and top meatballs with mozzarella. Return to oven and cook for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown.
- Serve with pasta or vegetables such as fried zucchini or roasted brussels sprouts (I love to serve hearty green veggies with marinara sauce – you totally don’t miss the pasta!).
Italian Meatballs:
- In a large bowl combine onion, eggs, worcestershire sauce, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic powder; mix well.
- Crumble ground beef into mixture and mix with your hands until just combined. Don’t “squeeze” the mixture with your hands – overworking the meat is what yields that “corky” texture.
- Add bread crumbs and continue to mix the ingredients until everything is just combined and starts to stick together. Add more bread crumbs if necessary until the mixture holds together.
- Shape into balls by hand or use my handy tip above for portioning/rolling meatballs.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (for easy clean-up) and spray with cooking spray. Place meatballs onto baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.
