I found a recipe for a meatball dinner many years ago, and have modified it over time to meet the preferences of my family. It’s comfort food for sure, and makes the house smell terrific.
It’s a good weekend night meal, which you can make in advance and either refrigerate or freeze. It’s almost a stew, with large ground beef meatballs instead of cubed beef. Make the meatballs in advance, and refrigerate, then put into a casserole to bake for dinner. Or freeze the entire thing in a casserole dish, then pop in the oven one night. Just make sure to use a casserole that can go from freezer to oven.
It could easily be made with ground chicken or turkey instead, or a mix of beef and pork meatloaf mix.
It’s tasty with a loaf of crusty bread and with a side salad makes a complete meal.
Meatball Casserole
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1.5 lbs ground meat (beef or meatloaf mix) try substituting ground chicken or turkey
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 onion, minced
- 1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp smoked chili powder
Casserole part
- 1.5 cups red wiine
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and chunked into 2" pieces
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and chunked
- 2 medium onions, quartered
Instructions
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Saute the onion in a bit of oil over medium heat until tender, and add to the ground meat in a large bowl. Add the bread crumbs, salt, mustard, chili powder mustard and eggs.
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Add in 1/4 cup of the wine and mix meat together lightly. form into 8 large meat balls. roll in a tablespoon of the flour.
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Brown the meatballs in a large skillet or casserole dish. Remove and set aside.
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In the casserole, stir the rest of the flour into the drippings. Cook lightly to remove flour taste, then add remaining wine, tomato sauce, water and pepper. Cook until thickened, stirring as needed.
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put the meatballs and the vegetables in the casserole pot, sitrring to v=cover with the gravy mix. Cover with oven proof lid.
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Bake 350F for about 45 minutes - 1 hour until veggies are tendered.
Recipe Notes
To make this a one pot dish, use a heavy metal or cast iron dutch oven, large skillet, or casserole dish. Otherwise you'll need to use a large skillet on the stove top and then put everything into an oven proof casserole dish for the final baking.
meatballs made the night before, cover and refrigerate
I love easy make ahead meals like this especially when you try to juggle so much during the week! Thank you for sharing, I know that I’m making with the last jar of my heirloom tomato pasta sauce I canned last year!
Have a wonderful weekend!
It’s great with a bit of homemade sauce! IN fact, sometimes I add extra wine and tomato sauce, just so there is more sauce on the meatballs and vegetables! I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for sharing!