Here’s an Old Family Recipe for Italian Meatballs

There are few dishes out there as comforting as homemade meatballs. Often a staple in Italian households, these delicious morsels of meat are regularly tossed in with a plate of spaghetti and sauce, but one of my favourite ways to enjoy them is just in a bowl with a piece of fresh, crusty bread on the side.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of making meatballs by hand, here’s your chance to learn, amore.

TikTok creator, @melissajorealrecipes has gone ahead and shared her family’s recipe for Italian meatballs and even tossed in a secret recipe for y’all. Here’s how to make them.

She even gets her nonna in the footage for the meatball recipe, which is adorable.

How to make traditional Italian meatballs

For those following along at home, here’s the full video which you can use as a guide. And if you need some additional guidance, we’ve written out the recipe for you to check out below.

@melissajorealrecipes

BEST MEATBALLS EVER! 🇮🇹✍🏽 #meatballs #recipes #italianfood

♬ original sound – Mealtime with Melissa

Melissa Jo’s recipe for meatballs

What you’ll need:

• 4 pieces of day-old Italian bread
• 1/2 cup of milk
• Ground meat (some use pork, some use beef, some use a mixture of both)
• Pecorino Romano
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 6 garlic cloves
• Handful of panko
• Handful of Italian breadcrumbs
• Fresh basil
• Salt and pepper to season

Directions

1. Rip up the pieces of bread and add milk to the bowl. Mix it up and let it sit for about five minutes.
2. Take your ground meat and place it in a bowl. Add in Pecorino, eggs, parsley, garlic (roughly chopped).
3. Remove your bread from the bowl of milk and squeeze out excess liquid.
4. Add the bread, panko and Italian breadcrumbs to the ground meat mixture.
5. Season your meat with salt and pepper then combine the mixture with your hands and roll it into small balls.
6. Add your meatballs to a frying pan with some olive oil and leave to brown.
7. Once browned, transfer the meatballs into a larger pot of sauce and leave it to cook “slow and low all day”.

Serve this dish up to your loved ones and they’ll be forever grateful. This is the good stuff, right here. And if you’d like more tasty recipes, check out this Jamie Oliver take on potatoes next.

This article on the Italian meatball recipe has been updated since its original publish date.