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Oh my gosh, you guys look.
I made a meal my oldest brother would LOVE.
When my brother comes to visit around the holidays, I always try to make the food he loves, but the rest of the year, I never make the type food he is into. My more usual fare has too many weird flavors, too many green things and never, EVER, enough beef.
BUT today I nailed it. Meatballs + pasta = Creighton food for sure. I only wish I could actually give him some to eat. I guess I will be making these around Thanksgiving… or Christmas, which kind of fits, seeing as the primary colors here are red and green.
Ok, sorry, no Christmas talk, but what about Halloween, can we talk about that yet?? This year I am more excited than most. I don’t know why, it’s not like I have crazy fun plans…or really any plans, but I don’t know. I think I am just SO happy that I have NO barn stuff to deal with this fall. Last year was beyond stressful, so this year I really want to do all the fun holiday things, and that means getting way too excited for Halloween!
Please tell me you guys are with me on this? Like can we just please pretend to be young kids and embrace that spirit that’s still alive within us somewhere?? Yes. <–DO IT.
And speaking of Halloween. I think this would be a pretty amazing pre trick or treating dinner… or in our family’s case, an after trick or treating dinner (my family doesn’t do anything EARLY!). It’s just such an easy, hearty, and of course, totally cozy, meal. A great way to both start and finish the month….you know, tomorrow is October first after all!
So here’s the deal. Aside from Creighton, no else is very big on meatballs. The idea of ground beef rolled into a ball just isn’t our thing, BUT, I found a way to make it our thing. Instead of ground beef, I really love using spicy Italian sausage. It just adds SO much flavor and the meatballs never come out dry. Another little secret of mine? Wet bread.
Yup, wet pieces of white or whole grain bread. I learned this trick from my grandma, who learned it from her mom. Both my grandmas make an amazing meatloaf. It’s probably my brother Creighton’s favorite meal. I have been saying for SO long now that I am going to make a meatloaf, but I just haven’t gotten the chance yet. I’m pretty sure my grandma has told me how to make it like five time now, and I still have yet to actually muster up the courage to try it out.
I think I’m kind of afraid to. I mean, you hear all these horror stories about meatloaf, bland, dry and tasteless meatloaf. Eeww! Who want’s that? Plus, most of the food I make, I make for the blog, and well I’m kind of scared to make meatloaf, and even more than a little horrified to photograph it.
YIKES.
My point? If there’s one thing I have taken away from my grandma’s instructions on how to make her meatloaf, it’s that wetting your bread prior to mixing it with the meat is KEY for moisture. Trust me, the first time she told me this I literally said, “wait, what?”. I had just never heard of actually putting bread under running water and squeezing out the excess water, seems weird, right?
Kind of, but it works, and it works really well. I used this same method for making my meatballs, and they turned out SO good! I do believe it’s all because of the bread. It’s magic guys!!
Ok and maybe all that oregano and sausage in there helps a little too!
Now let me tell you the bestest part about this dinner. It requires almost no effort. You mix your meatballs together, roll them into balls, place them in a baking dish, bake for a little, add your tomato sauce, add your cheese (and then a little more), bake a little longer, and… DONE. Yep, and only one pan – no frying the meatballs, no completely messy stove top and no broken, crumbly meatballs. Prayers answered, right?!?
And um, then – just add pasta!!
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Simple Baked Italian Oregano Meatballs = Happiness!
I can not get over how insanely good this looks. Mouth WATERING. Literally, right now. Oh my word. And those forks?! I need.
Thank you so much, Ashley!! Hope you are having a great day!
Can I nap in that? That GIF is too much to handle…
haha! Thank you!
The photos here are killing me, Tieghan and I LOVE the gif, you gotta capture the steam right! My mom used to soak bread in milk for moisture. 🙂 I never do it myself but maybe I should!
Thank you so much, Julia!! 🙂
Hope you are having a great weekend!! Oh and try the bread, it’s amazing!
I made this today with a few modifications, it was SO good. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks so much, Anne!!
That gif is making my mouth water! And I love the idea of using gochujang – it’s my all time favourite condiment so I like to get it in anywhere I can 😉
My mother used her mothers meatloaf recipe and I use the same one now … tearing bread and soaking it in milk before mixing everything together. Also part hamburger and part pork really helps too and you know what it is really good and I don’t really like beef. Give it a try … you might just be amazed!
You had me at one pan! I’m all for easy Italian so this is perfect!
This looks delicious, Tieghan. Do you think you could use chicken mince instead? Me and my family are non-red-meat eaters. I will try it this weekend! And to the poster above me….get a life, hater!! The cheese is obviously in no way burnt! -_-
Glad your brother likes burned cheese.
That CHEESE though!! And it’s my fave…you’re killing me, Tieghan!! These look yummy!
Question: do you know where you got that beautiful fork (with the twig-y handle)??? I just love it!!
Oh wow this looks so good and that steaming meatball gif is awesome.
Wow, these look amazing! My brothers would love these too. What is your secret for doing dishes? I LOVE cooking and HATE dishes and I always find that with meals like these I have caked-on food that won’t come off my dishes!!
Everything about this dinner… ?! When ever I make meat loaf (not often) I use a mix of ground pork and ground veal = super moist. But, I’m with you on the photo front ?. Potentially very tricky!
Must be a guy thing. My boyfriend goes crazy for meatballs of any kind! I hate frying them though so this would be perfect! I’ve done the wet bread trick before, though that time is was soaked in milk. Maybe something to try for when you make meatloaf?
I have heard wetting the bread works wonders in meatballs! On a crazy hectic week like this one, this recipe is gonna work wonders for my sanity.