Italian Sausage and Beef Meatballs

If you love Italian Meatballs…. You will love this recipe…. A basic meatball recipe with the addition of Italian bulk sausage… hot or sweet sausage.. which ever is your preference… totally delicious!

TIPS

As I mentioned you can use either hot or sweet (sometimes called mild) bulk sausage…. I make it either way depending on what I have in my freezer.  If you have trouble finding bulk sausage, simply buy links and open the casing and squeeze out the sausage.

The quantity of sausage to ground beef is flexible.. I’ve tried various amounts.. I found the best ratio to be about 1/4 sausage to ¾ ground beef.  So then you would want ½ pound sausage and 1 ½ pounds ground beef, as my recipe calls for.   If you want a little stronger sausage taste… just add more sausage and less ground beef, the recipe is flexible.

I cut up my onion into chunks and the garlic cloves in a few pieces and throw them into my mini chopper… a few pulses and they are perfectly cut and mixed.

You can easily cut back this recipe by a half if you want less… just be sure to use the egg… and only cut back the crumbs to ¾ cup to balance the moisture of the egg.

I bake my meatballs… my Mom always fried hers.. I found it easier and healthier to bake them.. once you try it that way.. you never go back to frying.. trust me.

You can make the meatballs ahead… including the baking part… and freeze them…place them on a cookie sheet and freeze until firm, then place them in a Zip loc bag or an airtight container… then you have them ready whenever you want them.  It’s great for when cooking for one or two…

I hope you try this really great spin on an Italian meatball.

Recipe:  Italian Sausage and Beef Meatballs

All you need:

1 ½ pounds ground beef

½ pound bulk Italian Sausage (hot or sweet)

1 ½ medium onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

½  cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

1 egg

1 ¼ cup Italian bread crumbs

½  cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

3 teaspoons Italian seasoning

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Tomato Sauce (homemade or store-bought)

All you need to do:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.   Roll the meat out into 1 ½ inch medium sized balls and place them on a non-stick cookie sheet or a cookie sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray.

TIP:  I love to use Reynolds Wrap Release Non-Stick foil, nothing sticks to it and it makes clean-up a snap.

Bake the meatballs for 25 minutes at 350 degrees F. or until no longer pink in the center (check one of them by cutting it in half… the cook needs a taste test anyway… but 25 minutes should be fine).

Add the meatballs to your tomato sauce and simmer for about 20 minutes so the sauce flavor absorbs into the meatballs.