If you enjoy eating meat, there are plenty of ideas out there for you. Whether you want to try a new slicer to get the perfect cut of meats for your meals or you’d rather just try out a new recipe, you have plenty of options.

A versatile dish to know how to make is meatballs. These can be the star of a dish all on their own or add a layer to a dish like pasta. No matter what you’re serving your meatballs with, you need to know how to make showstopping ones that you and whomever you’re cooking for will love. Here, we’ll take a look at how you can make super tasty meatballs.

The Basics

Before getting started, let’s take a look at how long this recipe will take and how much you’ll get out of it. If you use the exact measurements listed below, you’ll be able to make up to four dozen or 48 individual meatballs.

The prep work for these meatballs is quick too. The prep work alone only takes about half an hour and the total time for these meatballs from prep to plate is an hour.

What You’ll Need

A big first step in any recipe is gathering your ingredients. For these meatballs, you’ll need the following ingredients ready and at your disposal:

½ pound ground pork
½ pound Italian sausage (remove casings, if any)
1 pound ground beef
2 beaten large eggs
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 jar or 32 oz. of marinara sauce
1 small, finely chopped onion
3 minced cloves of garlic
½ cup milk
1 cup fresh grated parmesan
¼ cup fresh, chopped parsley
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Step One: Breadcrumb Prep Work

The first step might sound a little odd but it’s well worth your time. Before doing anything else, take out a small bowl that you can combine your single cup of breadcrumbs and ½ cup of milk in. You’ll want to continue to mix these until they’re evenly combined.

You aren’t going to use this just yet, though. If you’re just starting your recipe, you can set it aside while you prep your other ingredients. In general, though, you’ll want to let this mixture sit for about 15 minutes.

Step Two: Combining Your Meat

One mistake that a lot of home cooks make is sticking to a single type of meat for their meatballs, often opting for ground beef. That’s all well and good but it’s also very limiting. Just like any other type of ingredient, you can introduce new flavors and elements but using more diverse ingredients. That’s why it’s much better to opt for a blend. We recommend using ground beef, Italian sausage, and ground pork for variety.

It’s important to note here that if you bought your Italian sausage in a form in which it has a casing, you’ll want to remove that before getting started. You just want the ground Italian sausage for this.

To combine these, you’ll want to get a large bowl out that you can work in. Start out by mixing the sausage, pork, and beef together with the onion and garlic. On top of that, you’ll want to add salt and pepper but this is more to taste than a strict measurement.

After you do this, you can start mixing in other ingredients including parmesan, parsley, the two beaten eggs, and the bread crumb mixture from the last step.

Step Three: Forming the Meatballs

Thanks to the build of this ingredient list, you won’t only have a delicious meatball but one that is easy to shape and cook as well. After all, what good is a meatball if it falls apart into crumbles when you’re trying to cook it?

With the binding ingredients you’ve used thus far, it should be pretty easy to start rolling this mixture into balls. For easy cooking and later easy eating, it’s best to keep these meatballs at a manageable size of about an inch. For the best results, it’s a good idea to shape these with your hands.

Step Four: Cooking the Meatballs

To start this step, you’ll want to pull out a large skillet with high sides and set it over medium heat. Now, start heating your oil to sear the meatballs. If you start by searing them, you’ll have a nice crust on your meatball and you can finish it off on simmer.

After you sear the meatballs, take them out and set them aside. Since this recipe makes so many meatballs, you’ll need to work in batches to efficiently sear them.

Now, reduce the heat down to medium-low and add the sauce to your skillet. Once this is simmering, add the meatballs and cover the skillet. They should take about eight minutes or so to cook through.

Print the recipe out below.