I think I’ve hit the September Challenge jackpot with this one, folks. When I had my first bite of these Skillet Meatballs and Marinara I literally moaned and let out a quiet “Oh, hell yeah…”
These super easy skillet meatballs only have four ingredients and they come together in just a few minutes. If you want to be extra fancy, you can add a little grated Parmesan to the meatball mix, or even some frozen spinach (thaw and squeeze out the moisture first). But if you ask me, they’re insanely delicious just the way they are and I’m a big fan of the easy, no-fuss prep.
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Use Italian Sausage for Fast, Easy Meatballs
I like to use Italian sausage to make my meatballs because it already comes with all the seasoning inside the meat, so you really don’t have to add anything more. Just a little breadcrumbs and egg to hold the meatballs together, and some diced onion for good measure.
Can You Freeze the Meatballs?
Yes! Meatballs freeze very well. You can either freeze them uncooked, or just after you cook the meatballs in the skillet. I like the idea of freezing after cooking, so you can just toss the frozen meatballs into a pot of sauce to heat through whenever you want.
Take Another Short Cut
If you want to make this recipe even faster and easier, you can definitely just use a jar of store-bought sauce instead of making your own, and probably for about the same price.
Perfect for Meal Prep
This is one of my favorite meal preps. The meatballs and marinara hold up really well in the refrigerator for about 4 days. I like to pack them up with cooked pasta all in one container, but if you’re picky about pasta, you may want to pack the pasta separate so they sauce doesn’t continue to soften the pasta.
Skillet Meatballs and Marinara
Servings 6 (4 meatballs each)Ingredients
MEATBALLS
- 1 lb. Italian sausage (mild, sweet or hot) ($3.23)
- 1 cup breadcrumbs ($0.48)
- 1 large egg ($0.32)
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely diced ($0.19)
MARINARA
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced ($0.18)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($2.00)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.03)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 1 tsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.06)
PASTA
- 12 oz. pasta (any shape) ($1.00)
Instructions
- To make the meatballs, squeeze the Italian sausage out of the casing and into a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, egg, and diced onion. Using your hands, mix the ingredients until combined. Form the mixture into about 24 ping pong ball sized balls.
- Heat a large skillet over medium flame. Add the olive oil and tilt the skillet to coat. Add the meatballs and cook until browned on the outside (a couple minutes on each side). Work in two batches if needed to give the meatballs room to movel around. Once the meatballs are browned, remove them from the skillet to a clean plate.
- Add the second half of the diced onion to the skillet, along with two cloves of minced garlic. Sauté in the leftover oil and fat from the meatballs until soft and transparent. Once soft, add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, brown sugar, and tomato paste. Stir until the tomato paste mixes into the crushed tomatoes.
- Add the meatballs back to the skillet and gently stir to coat them in sauce. Place a lid on the skillet and let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for 15 minutes. Cook the pasta while the meatballs simmer.
- Drain the pasta and serve each bowl with pasta, four meatballs, and a scoop of sauce.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Skillet Meatballs – Step by Step Photos
Italian sausage is great because it has a ton of herbs and spices already mixed in, which means less work for you. I usually buy Johnsonville sausage, but noticed this store brand which was far less expensive. This package is 1.5 pounds, so I portioned off 1/2 lb. and froze it for later. You only need one pound of mild, sweet, or hot Italian sausage for this recipe.
This extra little 1/2 pound of sausage is going to come in handy later on in the month!
Add 1 lb. Italian sausage to a large bowl along with 1 cup breadcrumbs, 1 large egg, and 1/2 of an onion (finely diced).
Use your hands to mix until everything is evenly combined.
Start forming the meat mixture into ping pong sized balls. I wanted at least 24, so I could have six servings of four meatballs. I ended up getting 26 meatballs.
Heat a large skillet over a medium flame. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil, then tilt the skillet to make sure it’s coated in oil. Add the meatballs to the skillet and brown on all sides. This is a fairly quick process. You don’t need to cook them through, just until they are good and brown. They will simmer in the sauce later and finish cooking inside.
I worked in two batches to make sure the meatballs had room to roll around. Once browned, remove the skillet meatballs to a clean plate. (If you want to use a store bought sauce, don’t remove the meatballs, just pour the sauce on top and let them simmer in the sauce for 15 minutes.)
In the same skillet, add the other half of the onion (also diced) and two cloves of minced garlic. Sauté in the leftover oil until softened.
Add one 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes, 1 Tbsp tomato paste, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp salt, some freshly cracked pepper, and 1 tsp brown sugar. Stir and heat these ingredients until the tomato paste has mixed into the crushed tomatoes.
Add the partially cooked skillet meatballs back to the sauce and stir gently to coat them in sauce.
Place a lid on the skillet and let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for 15 minutes (turn the heat down slightly if needed to let it simmer gently). While the meatballs are simmering, cook the pasta.
To each bowl of pasta, add four meatballs and a scoop of sauce.
I portioned all of Skillet Meatballs and Marinara out ahead of time to make meal time easy. I may freeze a couple portions of this as well (but I have a feeling they’ll all get eaten quickly!).
NOM. My new favorite! <3
Thinking of making meatballs like this, except twice the amount and using 1lb jimmy dean country mild sausage and 1lb ground beef. Would that still work in this recipe?
I’m not sure, I’d need to try it out. :)
These look delicious, but isn’t a cup of breadcrumbs way too much? I am looking at other meatball recipes I use (mostly from Skinnytaste) and they have around 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup for 1lb to 20 oz of meat (one of those does use Parmesan as well, so that could factor in).
It wasn’t too much for me. :) It creates a really moist and tender meatball.
I just made these meatballs. I am not much of a cook – and NEVER would think to use sausage for meatballs. What a fantastic suggestion. It was so easy and these are very good. I really appreciate when you include in your recipes how to make it even easier – like with the jar of Marinara.
I am a prep cook in a restaurant (Italian) and we make meatballs all the time. This is a very good basic recipe. I have a few tweaks you can try. The trick to these is much like a good meatloaf. You can mix and match ingredients almost endlessly. The trick of frying a little of the meatball mixture to test the seasoning it a great one.
Add Parmesan cheese to the meatballs (buy and grate yourself if you do not like wood pulp). . Use 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 Italian sausage and 1/3 ground veal or 1/2 beef and 1/2 sausage. Veal is expensive and hard to find. The one comment about just using pork and adding Italian seasoning, etc. is a good one, but I would use pork and beef.
Cook the onion and garlic for a while before mixing in with the meat, just until the onions are somewhat soft and the garlic blooms. It helps with the texture of the onions and garlic flavor.
For the sauce, I like to deglaze the pan with red wine after cooking the onion and garlic for a while. Then add the tomatoes. Adding some roasted red peppers will also add to the depth of the sauce, along with the wine. Some crushed pepper flakes to taste is nice, but be careful as the spice from these ramps up fast.
The possibilities are endless.
If you want to avoid frying the comment about cooking in the oven on a sheet pan is great. It also allows browns much more evenly and the balls almost never fall apart.
Great recipe… so many good ones on your site.
Thank you for those wonderful tips!!
Lance, your tips are exactly what I do regularly–half beef, half sausage, parm cheese, some garlic either granules orr fresh, and dried mixed Italian herbs added to the above recipe. Then to make things even easier, I double the recipe and bake the meatballs on a sheet pan in the oven, because there is nothing more welcome on a busy night than some already cooked frozen meatballs. I make mine a little smaller than ping pong ball size because I sometimes like to add them to soup as well as sandwiches and pasta. And they are perfect for an emergency appetizer–just grab toothpicks. My family likes that old jelly/chili sauce thing from the 50s, but marinara always works
I just made this recipe with ground turkey, because it’s what I had in hand, and used some of the slow cooker marinara. Can’t even describe how delicious, my roommates and I all loved it!
Incredible! I used 3/4 lb. of spicy Italian sausage (kept other measurements the same) and this still made 37 ping pong ball sized meatballs. I browned them in two batches, as to not overcrowd. The sauce couldn’t be simpler, but still had so much flavor. I thought we had pasta, but we were out! Luckily I had a few zucchini so we made zoodles. I think I like these better than ground beef meatballs. Will definitely make again!
Made this for dinner tonight. I never would have thought to make meatballs out of sausage! Brillant! And delicious. Definitely another keeper. I LOVE this website. LOVE LOVE LOVE
We made this tonight and it was a huge hit! We did cheat and bought some fresh meatballs at the grocery store that were ready to cook. We will make this again soon as it was easy, cheap and delicious. Thanks for a great recipe!
What kind of breadcrumbs did you use? Are Panko a bad idea for meatballs? Thanks!
I used regular plain breadcrumbs that you buy in a container at the store. Panko are a lot less dense than traditional breadcrumbs. While I think they would still work, you might need to adjust the quantity some. They seem like they might absorb slightly less moisture because they’re a bit more airy.
The meatballs are genius! This has been added to our family favorite list after one meal. I’m planning on doubling the sauce portion next time. I like it saucy and the recipe was enough to coat but not overly generous.
What if I am using beef and pork? What can I season the meatballs with?
You’ll want to add a hefty dose of Italian seasoning blend. What makes these meatballs so easy is that the Italian sausage is already full of seasoning, so you don’t have to add anything else. If you’re using plain ground beef and/or pork, you’ll need to add the seasoning yourself.
So easy and doable!
I made garlic bread from french bread, butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese to go with it. YUM!
Looking forward to making this for dinner but I’m planning on freezing most of the leftover meatballs. Later do I defrost and then cook in a skillet with sauce 15 minutes, going back to the original recipe? Just curious what is the safest way to freeze/re-heat these, especially without a microwave.
I think I’d probably transfer them to the fridge the night before to defrost, then cook them the next day just as if you made them fresh (brown in skillet, then cook through in the sauce).
This was so tasty!!! Easy and enjoyable even for the kiddo! Love your recipes!!!
Do you think that this recipe would do okay in a slow cooker? I’ve made it the regular way before and it came out delicious.
I’m not sure the meatballs would stand up to the long, slow cooking process. And you definitely want to do the browning step in the skillet because that gives it a flavor that you can’t get in a slow cooker. :)