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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?”. Â 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!!
Simple Baked Italian Oregano Meatballs.
Servings: 6 Servings
Calories Per Serving: 553 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground spicy Italian Sausage may use ground beef if preferred
- 2 slices thick soft whole grain or white bread
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup fresh oregano chopped OR 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses may use regular molasses
- 1 tablespoon Gochujang Korean chile paste, optional
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 1 (28 ounce) can san marzano tomatoes crushed by hand
- 2 tablespoons harissa optional
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella sliced
- 4 ounce provolone shredded
- pasta for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish with olive oil.
- Add the ground sausage to a mixing bowl. Take the bread and run it under water until dampened, but not soaked. Gently squeeze the excess water out of the the bread and then crumble the dampened bread into pieces and add to the bowl with the sausage. To the bowl, add the egg, oregano, cumin molasses and Gochujang. Coat your hands with a bit of olive oil, and roll the meat into 2 tablespoon size balls (will make 10-12 meatballs). Place the meat balls in the prepared baking dish and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until the meatballs are crisp on the outside, but not yet cooked through on the inside.
- While the meatballs are baking, combine the olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, harissa (if using) and a pinch of salt + pepper in a bowl. Once the meatballs are ready, pour the sauce over them. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 25 minutes longer or until the meatballs are cooked through. Remove the foil and add the cheese. Place back in the oven until the mozzarella and provolone cheese are melted and golden, about 10 minutes. Serve with fresh oregano and your favorite pasta!
Notes
*Gochujang (Korean chile paste)Â may seem odd in this recipe but it adds a great unique flavor and if you have some, give it a try!
Simple Baked Italian Oregano Meatballs = Happiness!
You had me until you used cumin. I hate the flavor of it. I left it out and it was pretty good, but I soaked the bread in milk.
Thank you!
Omg, I have just finished cooking and subsequently engulfing this recipe! I live in Spain so I had to make a tonne of substitutions but it came out amazing! Mine was also a little watery and I’m sure it was the tomatoes but it was all just so good. Thanks so much for putting this recipe up!!
THANK YOU! So happy you love these!
He he I made the amazing recipe two weeks ago it was a hit mmmm mmmm mmmm .
I had not understood the recipe right . so I had not realized that the bread should be put in the meatballs 🙂 I put it down between them before the tomato came in ..
it actually worked out quite well.
but today I make it correct
Hi! I made this and it was delicious….but sooooooo watery!!! Please tell me the secret.
Your sauce looks rich and thick?
HI! I am thinking it must have been your tomatoes, try draining the tomatoes before adding them. So happy you loved this and let me know if you have more questions! Thanks!
I’m obsessed with it and these pics are gorgeous!
Thanks Victoria!
Hello!!
I came across your recipe via Pinterest (couldn’t resist the gooey cheese!) and tried it for dinner tonight. I didn’t have all the ingredients to hand but even so it was so simple and delicious. I made the meatballs ahead yesterday so just had to do the cooking.
I can see this becoming a firm favourite – thank you!!
Hi Tieghan
I recently came across your website from A Cup of Jo. I’ve now scoured your website incessantly looking at all the amazing recipes! I am a terrible cook, and always manage to get even the basics wrong (things are always dry or weirdly flavoured).
I had a relatively free weekend and decided to take the plunge and give one of your recipes a try – this one specifically. I didn’t know what a lot of the ingredients were, but I went to a specialty store (which was seriously so much fun in itself) and found most of them.
I just wanted to let you know that the end result was……. AMAZING! Your flavour combinations were foolproof and so were your instructions.
Thank you so much for this, I am so looking forward to doing a ‘Julia and Julia’ and working my way through all your recipes.
Many thanks,
Ali
looks wonderful will try it soon…where did you get your silverware. Love the rustic look.
THANKS! I bought the silverware at an antique store.
Merry Christmas!
Oh my stars! This was every bit as delicious as it looks and my husband went nuts for it! I made this exactly as written and used the recipe for harissa on this site (which is great too). San Marzano tomatoes are a must for the simple sauce and I think fresh oregano is the only way to go here. The gochujang and pomegranate molasses add a ton of unusual flavor and I would definitely include those. This is just simply a crazy flavor explosion and simple to do as well. Thank you!
You should really give credit where it’s due – I see you’ve adapted this from Donna Hay Magazine; her recipe is practically the same, and published before yours. I respect your love of cooking, but credit should be respected among cooks.
Hey Sandra,
I am sorry, I actually developed this recipe and do not feel it is similar to DH’s. I know exactly what recipe you are talking about as I have seen the photos and feel these are very different. I always give credit when credit is due and would never try to take credit for someone else’s work. The recipe was actually inspired by my grandmas meatloaf as I stated in my post. I hope that clears things up a bit for you. Tieghan
Quick question… do you drain the tomatoes before crushing them?
Hi Jessica,
Nope, I just use all the juices. Hope you love these!
Wet bread is KEY! My nonna taught me that and it’s the BEST trick to know! You are making me more inspired to start my comfy cooking foods! This looks amazing! Thank you!
Made this…way too cheesy. The sauce was tasty but it was cheese overkill!
the harissa you used .. was it the sauce/paste? or spice/seasoning? i found both. thank you! 🙂
HI!
It was a sauce. Hope you love this! 🙂 THANKS!!
Well …my 94 year old mother (who is still a rock star in the kitchen) only uses wet breadcrumbs in her meatballs and burgers. I’m with you on the meatloaf thing…tough to photograph but super yummy to eat! Now that I think of it my sweet and sour meatloaf recipe might just be camera friendly! This looks delish by the way. I love the ooey gooey heartiness of this dish.
Thank you so much, Debi! Hope you are having a great week!