Italian Meatballs

I adapted this recipe and it turned out great! I cut the recipe in half, reduced the spices and bread crumbs (about 2 tsp. each of the spices, 3/4 C crumbs, 1/2 package onion soup), and added 1 egg. I then browned the meatballs on the stovetop and simmered them for about 20 minutes in two bottles of spaghetti sauce. YUM! I'm not sure why you would want to simmer meatballs for 4 or 5 hours - 20 minutes worked out well for me. Whole thing took 45 minutes to make.

I don't get the high review for this recipe. If you're going to buy 3 POUNDS of beef, then you may as well buy FRESH parsley and oregano too! I didn't really like these. Firstly, these absolutely do not need 1 HOUR to cook. By 45 mins mine were done, and dry at that. Also, if you're going to simmer them for 4 HOURS, there's little need to cook them in the first place, much less fully-cooked! I tried these after they were baked and didn't like them. I've had frozen meatballs that tasted better - and are cheaper than making your own. Secondly, and I've already mentioned this, but who simmers sauce with meatballs for 4 HOURS? This recipe means that you have to start this at noon, so that it's ready by dinnertime. In today's society, this doesn't work for the modern family. I'm a bachelor myself and I'm not hanging out all day babysitting my stovetop hoping that these bland things would be better after simmering for 4 hours. There are better recipes out there, and if I don't find one on here I'm going to create my own. "Italian Meatballs" indeed!!

It was EXCELLENT!! I followed the advise of AMFISCHER about cutting back on the spices, but the one thing that I changed was that I didn't brown the meatballs first. I simmered them in the sauce and I added basil, oregano, garlic salt, and crushed garlic and let it simmer for 45 minutes. IT WAS GREAT!!! The family loved it!

I liked these meatballs but I feel like they're missing something! I didn't use 3 POUNDS of beef...that's WAY TOO MUCH! I used 2 lbs. and that made about 50 meatballs...WOW! Maybe they need more garlic...or some onions?? I did not use the dry onion soup mix because I read that most people thought it was too strong. DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE OVEN FOR AN HOUR! I only had mine in the oven for about 30 minutes and they probably needed only 25 minutes. No need to simmer for 4 hours...30 minutes is all you need. Might try to work with this one a little.

These were pretty good. I find using dry bread crumbs in meatballs tends to make them hard as a rock, so I moisten them with half cup of milk (stir well) before adding to the meat mixture, and they turned out very moist. One hour in the oven was far too long, even though I make BIG meatballs. They all burned on the bottom. Not a bad recipe, just needs some tweaking.

These meatballs were so overpowering with oregano. Instead of 5 T. of oregano and parsley, it should only be 1 T. Then, I would add 1 egg to help moisten the meatballs. They ended up being really dry. I will try them again with the modified ingredients and see if they taste better.

This was my first time making meatballs and they came out excellent.My boyfriend gushed over them.I put the meatballs and sauce over spaghetti. I was very pleased with the easiness and delicious flavor.

This recipe turned out very well and reminds me of the ones I grew up with as a child. I'm cooking a batch for my local Firefighters right now! SingleGuyWhoCooks? I guess your family didn't cook like this when you were little! Good Italian meatballs are cooked first (oven or stovetop, although 1 hour is a bit long) before they're plopped into the sauce to simmer all day on the stove. The sauce permeates the meatballs and just adds to their flavor. They can certainly be cooked quickly and served with store-bought spaghetti sauce, but meatballs just get better and better if they're allowed to simmer in the sauce for several hours. (They're fantastic cooked a day or two ahead, too! My meatballs will be served to the Firefighters in two days. They've just come out of the oven and are sitting in my sauce where they will cool to room temperature and go in the fridge till Monday. Reheating them will be fabulous!)

My meatballs turned out great, but I gave this recipe only 3 stars because I changed some things. I cut out the garlic, used fresh oregano and added fresh thyme. I didn't have dry bread crumbs so I used fresh. I also threw in some parmesan. I was afraid of dried out hard meatballs so I baked them at 400 for 25 minutes at which time they were fully cooked through. I simmered them in the spaghetti sauce for maybe 10 minutes until my noodles were done boiling. Turned out to be a great meal though!!

I'm curious if the person who submitted this lives in high altitude as I am at sea level and the meatballs were done in 30 minutes and even then that seemed a bit excessive. I halved the recipe and changed: Parsley to Italian Seasoning Garlic to Garlic Salt I also added salt and pepper pretty heavily. Halving the recipe gave me about 15 meatballs, a pretty decent sized ones at that. I simmered them with sauce for 30 minutes and even before the simmering, the meatballs were not overly dry or crumbly, however, I will suggest you add 1 egg to the mix. This is a good recipe simply because it is so easy to change ingredients as you go and can alter to taste. I'm keeping this one on file :)