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Pan of homemade baked one-inch meatballs flecked with dried herbs, one cut open

Homemade Baked Meatballs

About 40 small oven-baked meatballs made with a pound of ground meat, seasoned dry breadcrumbs, onion and a little tomato sauce, baked at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes.
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 40 meatballs (about 4 servings)
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American, Italian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound ground meat beef, chicken, lamb, turkey or a combination
  • 6 tablespoons (3/8 cup) plain dry breadcrumbs, unseasoned
  • 1/4 cup onion finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup tomato sauce
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste (see notes)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil

Method
 

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F. Grease a large rimmed baking sheet or shallow baking pan, or line it with parchment paper.
  2. Stir the breadcrumbs, salt, black and white pepper, parsley, oregano and basil together in a small bowl.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the ground meat with the onion, tomato sauce, egg and the seasoned breadcrumbs, using your hands or a fork, just until evenly combined. Overmixing makes meatballs dense and tough.
  4. Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls just over 1 inch across and set them about 1/2 inch apart in the prepared pan. There should be about 40.
  5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until browned and cooked through with no pink in the middle. An instant-read thermometer pushed into the center of a meatball should read 160°F for beef or lamb and 165°F for chicken or turkey.

Notes

Any ground meat works here: beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, or a blend of two. Meatballs that contain chicken or turkey must reach 165°F.
For a smaller batch, 3/4 pound of meat works with the same amounts of the other ingredients; expect about 30 slightly softer meatballs.
The salt is on the light side. To check the seasoning before shaping, cook a teaspoon of the mixture in a small skillet until no pink remains, taste it, and add up to 1/4 teaspoon more salt to the bowl if needed.
For larger meatballs, roll 2-tablespoon portions (about 1 1/2 inches across, around 20 meatballs) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, to the same internal temperatures.
Storage: refrigerate baked meatballs in a covered container for 3 to 4 days, or freeze them on a tray, then bag them, for up to 3 months. Reheat them in simmering sauce until the centers reach 165°F; frozen meatballs take 20 to 25 minutes.
To serve them with pasta, see spaghetti and meatballs, which simmers one batch in blender spaghetti sauce.