How to Make Meatballs for Spaghetti

5 from 1 vote

Easy Meatball Recipe! You can make meatballs in the oven. You can make meatballs on the stove! Either way and they will be AWESOME!

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time1 35

Course: main

Cuisine: American

Keyword: how to make meatballs for spaghetti

Servings: servings

Calories: 386kcal

Preheat the oven to 425.
Prepare two baking sheets with aluminum foil sprayed heavily with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together the whole milk and the saltine cracker crumbs. Mix well and set aside.
Place all of the other items into a large bowl together - tearing the meat into small pieces as you go. Do not mix the meats until ready to add in the crackers/milk mix.
When the cracker milk mix resembles breakfast cereal that has been allowed to sit out for too long and has become very soggy, then add to the meat mixture and using your hands mix well. Only mix together until it appears that it has been evenly mixed. Then stop! If you over mix, your meatballs will be chewy.
Once the meat mixture is well mixed, roll into balls that are about the size of golf balls and place on the baking sheets - placing no more than 12 per sheet. I recommend using a 1 - 1 1/2 inch scoop so that they all turn out even.
Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes. Remove from the pan and place into an awaiting rich tomato sauce and simmer for several hours until ready to serve. We prefer to serve over spaghetti

This is really important - DO NOT over handle the meat. Usually, I have you mixing things in as soon as you add them. Not this time. Simply start with the saltines in the milk and let that sit. While that is soaking, put ALL of the other stuff in a bowl and let it set until the saltine milk is ready to add. When you add the saltine milk, then using your hands, gently mix everything together as completely as possible. As SOON as it is mixed together, start rolling your meatballs.
I experimented with several sizes of meatballs. The size that holds its shape the best is a little smaller than a golf ball. Go with that size.
Roll the meatballs up and place them on the prepared pan.
DO NOT forget to spray your tin foil with non stick cooking spray - because the meatballs will stick and then you will lose that wonderful caramelization along the bottom of the meatball.
The meatballs are gonna sag a little when they cook - don’t worry - it is normal.
Remove the meatballs from the pan GENTLY - they aren’t baseballs.
Ever so gently drop the meatballs into the sauce.

Simmer means that the sauce just barely bubbles. No vigorous stirring of the sauce once the meatballs are added. Gentle stirring only. Scrape up along the bottom of the dish with each stir.
Simmer for a couple of hours if you can and stir every once in awhile.

I used Italian parsley in this dish but I’ll be honest I live in the country and I can’t always find Italian Parsley at the grocery here. Curly parsley will do. I think it has less flavor though (just my opinion). Chop the parsley as fine as you are able, it doesn’t wilt a lot in the meatballs.
As usual, if you don’t like garlic (I sometimes get complaints that I use too much garlic in my recipes) - you could leave it out - but then your meatballs won’t taste just right - so, you decide. Plus - there is always the added benefit of vampire deterrent if you add the garlic. Lol.

I know you are probably going to have questions about the saltines in the milk. Here is the answer to your question. Have you ever let a bowl of cornflakes sit out for too long and when you come back they are all mushy and unappetizing? That is what the saltines should look like. They are ready to add to the hamburger when they have absorbed all of the milk. That is how you will know. You must stir them pretty frequently to encourage them to absorb all of the milk.
You probably are going to ask me if you can use 2% or 1% or skim milk in this recipe. The answer is no. Use Whole milk. That is part of the beauty of the recipe - you can even brag - “Try my whole milk meatballs”