Bake the Meatballs instead of frying

Melanie - January 3, 2007 02:02:25 PM PST

I make meatballs ALOT for my family the recipe is similar, i have found it is much easier and less fattening if you place the meatballs on a cookie sheet and bake them at 350 for about 15 minutes (just keep and eye on them im not exactly sure of the time), I take them out of the oven when they are all brown, if they are a little raw in the middle that will cook through the rest of the way while the sauce is simmering

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Lower fat recipe....

louislippsjr - January 3, 2007 02:01:04 PM PST

No way it has 111 grams of fat per serving -- obvious typo. But you don\'t have to fry the meatballs in all that oil to have them cook up well. My grandmother\'s authentic Italian recipe actually calls or BAKING the meatballs at about 375 degrees for 25 minutes - 10 on each side -- on a lightly greased (olive or other vegetable oil) cookie sheet. It cuts out some of that fat if you\'re making an effort to reduce fat content. But the ingridients for the meatballs are right on. My grandmother and mom never used buttermilk (they just sprinkled some water on the bread to hep break it down) but that\'s probably a good addition.

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Watch out for the typo.

agajpc - January 2, 2007 04:46:34 PM PST

You would need 1/4 cup oil for pan frying, not 1 1/4 cups. This is why the calorie count is absurdly high. Don\'t let this keep you from making it-- it sounds very tasty.

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No oil please

CallieCoCat - January 3, 2007 01:58:30 PM PST

You don\'t need ANY oil to fry meatballs. I\'ve made meatballs for over 30 years and never have I used oil. It adds way too many calories and is completely unnecessary.

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FATTY or what??

mangomiata - January 3, 2007 12:26:47 PM PST

Is there truly 111g of fat in this recipe? or is this a misprint like I suspect??

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Italians love it!

Dan - January 16, 2007 03:26:22 AM PST

I made this recipe for a friend who\'s family is full-blooded Italian they work for an Italian food distributer and have owned their own restaurants. He said my meatballs were as good as grandma\'s. The buttermilk and bread is one reason for this. Give it a try. Oh yes, I bake my meatballs as well.

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Fantastic

kjajss - January 3, 2007 02:45:36 PM PST

Having used this Cook\'s recipe for about 4 years now I can tell you that people LOVE it! There are close to 40 reviews and I am the only one who has actually tried it. Who cares if it isn\'t the national dish of Italy,who cares if the fat count is to high low or whatever. This dish on a cold night with some crusty bread, simple salad and bottle of red is FANTASTIC!!!!!

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italian chef

stansrd1 - January 3, 2007 02:09:29 PM PST

I have made meetballs for many years for my familly and never fried meetballs but rather cook them in tomato sause. Once cooked all meetballs start to float, and you are done.

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Step 1: Cook the meatballs. Step 2: Write review.

Vera - January 3, 2007 10:06:28 PM PST

This is for reviewing the recipe after you tried it. You try it, it tastes bad that\'s when you give it 1 star. But don\'t rate it on semantics and calorie count! Come on people, grow up! Please?

I tried it and it was pretty good, but instead I boiled the meatballs instead of frying.

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Can y'all read?

roszettal - January 3, 2007 04:00:41 PM PST

No wonder alot of these recipes don\'t get full stars....because people can\'t even read the recipe correctly. First of all it doesn\'t say it\'s classic italian. It says classic spaghetti and meatballs. Classic in the sense we grew up eating spaghetti and meatballs. Here. In America. It\'s a classic dish. Secondly, as it has been pointed out, the total calorie count is for 4 servings not one.
It\'s really a wonderful recipe.

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another way

mditsme - January 3, 2007 02:45:27 PM PST

I make my meatballs with simular ingredients ( I make them with ground turkey now adays, parm cheese, bread crumbs sauted onion garlic in a little olive oil salt, egg, parsley), but I just drop the raw meatballs into the hot sauce and let them simmer for about 30-40 minutes ( low heat ) works great and the ground turkey is only about 7% fat. Both impart good flavors to eachother the meatballs hold together fine if you don\'t stir them for the first few minutes of cooking.

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no onion?

mitzi2 - September 22, 2007 06:45:21 AM PST

I cannot imagine meatballs with no onion nor sauce with no onion.
also,if you don\'t care about browning the meatballs but do care about the fat you can microwave them just enough to hold them together to cook in the sauce.the microwaving renders a huge amount of fat and once they are cooked in the sauce it is unnoticable to anyone they haven\'t been browned.
also, i agree with the person who said you need no oil to fry them.
for my taste i would triple the garlic if not more.

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just me?

lexcoupe96 - July 30, 2007 02:48:57 PM PST

I dont bake or fry my meatballs in oil.....maybe I\'m crazy but, I cook them in a nice thick layer of spaghetti sauce on top of the stove in a frying pan....I just keep rotating them until they are cooked on all sides

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Don

Tunafish - June 27, 2007 04:07:45 AM PST

Put Your Meatballs Right In Your Sauce Raw And Let Cook For A Few Hours. No Need To Bake Or Fry Them.They Will Hold Up Fine And Be Moist As Can Be. You Can Also Do This With Sausage And Will Give Your Sauce Even More Flavor. P.S.....It Is Sauce, Not Gravy.

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not a typeing problem!

RindaSan - January 3, 2007 03:45:08 PM PST

it was neither a 1/4 cup or 1 1/4 cup ,it IS 1/4 inch ,better get your eyes checked,thank\'s

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Listen folks....

Fast - January 3, 2007 02:42:18 PM PST

Stop freaking out about the fat content.... its for the WHOLE recipe, not a serving. Divide the number by 4 to get the per serving specs. And for all those who say these aren\'t "real" Italian, remember, this is America, and there are a lot of "Italian" traditions that come from those Italians who have emigrated here and work with American ingredients. Jeez.... no need to be snobs about it!

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A HEALTHIER TWIST

Jennifer G - July 21, 2008 01:46:09 PM PST

My mom makes the most delicious meatballs, freezes them and gives them to me to use as needed. One of the tips I have is to definitely bake the meatballs and then when you use them, cook them in a crockpot all day with the sauce (that way the sauce ends up absorbing the flavors of the meatballs.

In addition I\'ve started buying lower calorie/fat sauce and then adding my own ingredients. For instance, I\'ll saute garlic and onions in basil, fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, and oregano first and then add it to the sauce with 1 diced green pepper, a bag of frozen peas, 1/2 a diced eggplant, perhaps a diced zucchini. You are doubling your veggies and adding some great flavor at the same time.

Enjoy!

Jennifer, www.lost100.com, read about my quest to lose 100 pounds (already at minus 90 and counting!)

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excellent !

sharon - March 26, 2007 11:03:45 AM PST

I used a whole pound of sausage, because I had a pound in the freezer that I wanted to use. Great flavor. I used fresh basil and oregano, but added those at the end. I did add some dried in the beginning. Also used 3 cloves fresh garlic, and some dried onion. I used two larger cans of tomato sauce (14 oz?) instead of the smaller ones and one can was no-salt-added. This sauce was still a little too salty for me, probably because of the evaporated liquid during the long simmer. The long simmer is essential though (I did a little over an hour) to develop that great thick texture and great flavor. Mine got a little too thick, so I added a splash of water at the end. Served over whole-wheat spaghetti.

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Baking meatballs

Lori A - February 12, 2007 12:40:20 PM PST

Great recipe, but try baking the meatballs in a mini muffin tin..the meatballs keep their shape if you make them just a bit larger than the holes in the tin, (so that they rest on the edge) and the fat drips off into the bottom!

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Oil, and no onions?

thebobcatreturns - January 3, 2007 03:04:28 PM PST

1. it isn\'t necessary to oil the pan to fry meatballs, but if you must, you can use even a tablespoon or two of EVOO to do the job. The meatballs will render soon enough.

2. where the heck are the onions? I don\'t even like onions that much, but they\'re essential for good meatballs and a good marinara. Try mincing or finely chopping half an onion into the meatball mixture and another half into a sautee pan with some garlic to be added to the sauce later. By the time your sauce has cooked, you won\'t even notice them in there, but you will pick up the flavor.

3. When considering this meal for calories and such, consider that you\'re not going to eat a full quarter of the sauce per plate. 4 oz. cooked pasta is a full dinner plate, and with a couple of meatballs and some sauce and cheese, you may break 1000 calories, but probably not by much. And you definitely will come in below 111 grams of fat.

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Slightly less fat

wolfdix - January 3, 2007 02:52:02 PM PST

You don\'t need to fry the meat balls. (I don\'t even bake them) I use milk instead of buttermilk to soak the bread (the fluffier the bread the better) and a whole egg. Once the meatballs are shaped, I just drop them in the pot where the tomato sauce is cooking and then cook them for about 30 min. (I make small meatballs, so they get tastier by absorbing the tomato sauce flavor).
The only oil I use is to add to the spaghetti water so they don\'t stick together, and a tbsp of olive oil to sautee the garlic.
I don\'t use ground pork either. I add a dash of garlic powder to the ground meat and about a teaspoon of salt.
They come up tender, juicy and tasty.

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Stop Complaining!!!

aeshleyrose - July 15, 2008 05:00:38 AM PST

All I ever see on Yahoo! Food is people complaining about the nutritional content. GOD, STOP COMPLAINING! It is not hard at all to swap out ingridients for healthier ones. It\'s very unfair to give a recipie a negative rating cause you think it\'s unhealthy. All people want to do is complain nowadays!

I, for one, am also watching my weight, and swapped out the pork and beef for 4% used whole grain spaghetti, non-fat buttermilk, and used olive oil for the frying oil also since it works just as well. And without complaining about something I can\'t help at all, I just did something about it, and this was great. I would also suggest baking the meatballs at 325F for 15-20 mins.

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Crazy.

terrence_mcclusky - July 10, 2008 02:56:46 PM PST

There\'s no way a serving of meatballs should be over 1,500 calories.

1. Bake them. There\'s not need to fry them whatsoever.

2. Lose the pork and replace it with ground turkey. With the right seasonings, you\'ll barely know the difference.

Spaghetti and meatballs can actually be healthy. Just use whole grain pasta, and never, ever put sugar in your sauce. The only reason people have bitter sauce is because they didn\'t leave it on the stove long enough. Give your sauce 3 or 4 hours on low heat, after the initial cooking. You\'ll be left with a sweeter and far healthier sauce than you would if you added sugar. (yuck!)

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COOKING MEATBALLS

mikef711 - April 24, 2008 01:00:28 PM PST

TRY COOKING MEATBALLS ON OUTSIDE GRILL

IN SUMMER TIME NO NEED TO USE OVEN

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Superb

foxfemme1 - October 21, 2009 01:59:11 PM PST

This is very similar to a recipe I\\'ve used for years, as well as it\\'s similar to the Barefoot Contessa\\'s. I add 1 T. of tomato paste to the meatball mixture, and no buttermilk but I use water; I\\'m very anxious to try the buttermilk. Regarding frying or baking, I prepare them both ways. Certainly baking is easier and tasty, but I think that frying in a bit of olive oil (I\\'ll try it sans oil as a previous reviewer recommends) makes a richer sauce with deeper flavor because of all the brown bits remaining in the skillet that gets incorporated into the tomatoes and their juice. Also, I prefer canned whole tomatoes rather than pureed -- I break the tomatoes up with scrupulously clean hands. Lastly, I always add a splash of good Chianti to the sauce. But my added suggestions or not, this is a great recipe.

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Boring

moternm5 - January 3, 2007 03:31:00 PM PST

What a boring sounding sauce!! Garlic, salt, pepper and tomatoes? You\'d be better off buying sauce. If you dont want to do that try sauteing carrots, celery, and onions, maybe some shallots on low heat with a touch of olive oil so they sweat and become half cooked. Then ad tomatoes, you might need some paste but probably not. Cook all of this together til everything is fully cooked then add the garlic. You don\'t want to cook the garlic first because it changes the flavor and most people are not able to saute garlic without overcooking it, it\'s easier this way trust me. Once all is cooked together you can either put it in a blender and puree it or leave it chunky. If you use a blender BE CAREFULL!!! Hot liquid will explode if you turn it on, you have to use the pulse method. Add some rosemary finely chopped, (no stems) at the end as well. The biggest thing people forget to do is season the food correctly, I think most are scared of salt and pepper, lol. Be carefull however of other ingredients in which might contain salt already, always season at the end, taste it to see what it needs then season accordingly. As for the meatballs you can do them anyway you want, frying them is messy but have a crispier texture. Baking them is healthier and don\'t forget to season them good too, take a little piece before you roll them out and throw it in a pan and fry it to test out the flavor first.
Enjoy!

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Meatballs

wsfig - September 22, 2007 06:10:27 AM PST

For you gringo\'s out there.True Italian meatballs consist of ground beef,veal

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I think people are lost!!!

ldereimer86 - January 3, 2007 02:10:53 PM PST

okay apparently everyone is confused..111 grams of fat in FOUR servings..thats about 27 grams of fat per serving. This is not a weight watchers recipe, so 27 grams of fat really isnt too ridiculous when were talking about pasta here!

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Take you straight to the cardiac cath lab...

ian_shadow - October 22, 2009 02:10:46 PM PST

All I have to say is, 1583 calories!? Holy #$%^@!

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Baked Meatballs

donnalynnvasquez - October 22, 2009 11:20:33 AM PST

They are much better when you bake them not as fating.

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