Mini Meatballs. Make them in large batches for the freezer then use in spaghetti sauce, Italian Wedding Soup, Baked Ziti, or even as party hors d’oeuvres!
Mini Meatballs in tomato sauce with penne pasta.
This is a terrific recipe to get a head start on so many delicious meals! We have a few of them coming up soon, including Spouse’s Italian Wedding Soup!
You can also use these in spaghetti and meatballs if you like for a quick family meal. Just drop the frozen balls into a pot of simmer ing tomato sauce and since they are pre cooked and frozen, they will be ready in the time it takes to cook the pasta!
The mini meatballs cook quickly on a baking sheet.
Use them in our recipe for Honey Garlic Meatballs or in another upcoming recipe for Baked Ziti, inspired by one of our favourite Tv series, the Sopranos! You’ll want to stay tuned for that one!
Honey Garlic Meatballs
A meatball sub with one of our tasty tomato sauces is also quick to make with these mini meatballs. I like to toast the sub rolls t=for these, so they are less soggy.
I’ve been grinding my own neef and pork for years. I like a coarser grind for a meatier meatball texture.
These are even good as party food. Make the same honey garlic sauce as a dip or use one of our BBQ sauce recipes! A quick reheat in the oven, then serve them on toothpicks.
They make perfect bite sized morsels for entertaining.
Mini Meatballs from the freezer are a quick meal lifesaver.
As we do with our regular sized meatballs, we make large batches, cook them and freeze them in small packages of about a dozen or so. Depending on how many we need at a time, will will pull out as many of the small packages as we need for the dish we are making and the number of people we are serving.
Vacuum sealed meatballs ready for the freezer.
We do love our vacuum sealer, so most often we freeze the balls on a cookie sheet and vacuum seal them when frozen. This ensures they well not suffer freezer burn for several months, until you need to make a new batch.
With an idea this versatile and with so many practical uses, it’s well worth a weekend afternoon to make a big batch for meals over thte coming weeks. You’ll be very glad you did!
Please note that this is big batch cooking, and will make just over 100 half ounce mini meatballs, so make half the recipe if that’s too many for your household.
Ingredients for the soaked breadcrumb mixture.
Adding the milk to the breadcrumbs and parmesan.
The herbs and spices used in the mini meatballs.
Finely chopped garlic.
Ready to mix.
Don’t mess with the manicure! Spouse wears disposable gloves to combine the ingredients.
You’ll need two cookie sheets for about 100 mini meatballs.
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Mini Meatballs
Mini Meatballs. Make them in large batches for the freezer then use in spaghetti sauce, Italian Wedding Soup, Baked Ziti, or even as party hors d'oeuvres!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (note, you can use all beef or all pork in this recipe if you prefer.)
- 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
- 1 1/2 cups fine dried bread crumbs (See Notes Below)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp coarse black pepper, freshly ground
- 1 tsp chili flakes, or to taste
- 1 tbsp paprika, or smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp ground fennel seeds. (I crush them with a mortar and pestle but you can crush them in a sandwich bag using a mallet or hammer if you can't find pre-ground.)
Instructions
- Pour the milk over the breadcrumb and let them soak while you gather the other ingredients in the meatball recipe.
- Add all remaining ingredients to a large bowl along with the soaked bread crumbs.
- Mix everything together well, so that all of the ingredients are well incorporated.
- I like to use my hands for this, mixing in sort of a kneading motion. Spouse uses disposable gloves or uses the KitchenAid stand mixer with the paddle attachment on lowest speed.
- I like to chill the meatball mixture for an hour or two before rolling the meatballs. This firms the mixture up and makes them easier to roll.
- Slightly wet hands are also helpful for rolling the meatballs to keep the mixture from sticking to your palms. A spray bottle of water is a great thing to have on hand for this purpose.
- I do weigh these out to half ounce/15 gram balls to keep them a consistent size for cooking time. That's about a rounded teaspoon, I would guess.
- Roll the balls, placing them only a 1/2 inch or so apart on a parchment or foil lined baking/cookie sheet. We used 2 large cookie sheets to accomodate all of the balls.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until they just get brown. Watch carefully and use a timer, their small size makes them incredibly easy to overcook.
- Let the balls rest until completely cooled on the trays.
- Once cooled we transfer all of the balls to a single tray and freeze them for a couple of hours uncovered in the freezer.
- This method makes them easy to separate and use as many as you want in the future without them all freezing into a giant ball.
- Freeze them in batches of about 2 dozen, in covered plastic containers or ziploc bags.
- Since they are fully cooked, they can be added from frozen to spaghetti sauce, baked pastas, or one of our favourites Italian wedding soup. Look for that recipe soon!
Notes
Regular breadcrumbs will likely soften the meatballs too much so I use dried. You can buy them in thise canister containers, or instead make your own from bread you have on hand. We even keep our unused parts of loaves n the freezer until we have enough to make a batch. Nothing is wasted in our house.
Find my methood for homemade dried breadcrumbs by CLICKING HERE.
Nutrition Information
Yield
100Serving Size
1 ballAmount Per Serving Calories 66Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 18mgSodium 98mgCarbohydrates 3gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 5g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.