Published: Mar 31, 2025
This is the easiest recipe for homemade spaghetti and meatballs. A 5-ingredient marinara sauce simmers while the meatballs bake, then everything is tossed together with spaghetti noodles.
Making spaghetti and meatballs from scratch is simpler than you might think, so long as you’re willing to multitask.
Once shaped, the meatballs disappear into the oven and emerge 30 minutes later perfectly golden brown and juicy. As the meatballs bake, you’ll throw together a 5-ingredient marinara sauce that’s infused simply with the flavors of garlic and fresh basil.
Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling water just before the meatballs need to come out of the oven and — like magic — everything should finish at roughly the same time.
Don’t you just love when that happens?
There may be a few steps to preparing homemade spaghetti and meatballs, but it’s an easy recipe that wows every time.
Heidi’s Tips for Recipe Success
- I blitz a few slices of white bread (or any other tender white bread) in the food processor and soften the crumbs in milk before adding to the ground beef and pork to make these meatballs extra moist and tender. Wet your hands well before shaping so the meat doesn’t stick to your hands to form perfectly smooth round balls.
- I don’t fuss with the mess of frying the meatballs. Instead, I bake them until they’re super tender and juicy on the inside and nicely browned on the outside, without having to sear them first.
- You can use a good-quality store-bought marinara, but it’s just about as easy to make my homemade marinara sauce. It calls for just 5 basic ingredients, cooks in the same amount of time as the meatballs, and tastes amazing.
- The meatballs and sauce can be prepared in advance and reheated later.
What’s in This Recipe?
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Ground meat — use a blend of ground beef and ground pork to make moist and juicy meatballs
- Onion and garlic — need to be sautéed to deepen their flavors before being added to the meatball mixture
- Bread crumbs — make your own fresh bread crumbs by pulsing a few slices of bread (any kind) in a food processor
- Milk — adds even more moisture to the meatballs and prevents them from drying out while baking
- Egg — serves to both bind the meat mixture together and also add lots of moisture
- Herbs and spices — a combination of fresh Italian parsley, dried oregano, salt, and pepper adds layers of flavor
- Marinara sauce — use your favorite store-bought marinara sauce, or make your own using just canned tomatoes, tomato paste, fresh basil, garlic, and olive oil
- Spaghetti noodles — you’ll need a full pound of spaghetti for this recipe
Ingredient Swaps and Substitutions
- Ground meat — you may use all ground beef or all ground pork, noting that ground pork is fattier and can make greasy-tasting meatballs (if using all ground beef, choose an 80/20 blend to prevent dry meatballs)
- Herbs — swap out the fresh herbs for dried, remembering that you only need ⅓ the amount
- Spaghetti noodles — pair the meatballs and sauce with your favorite pasta shape (gluten-free may be used)
How to Make Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Sauté the aromatics. Cook the onion and garlic in an oiled skillet until softened and fragrant.
- Soak the bread crumbs. Combine the bread crumbs and milk in a small bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes. This gives the bread crumbs time to hydrate and prevents the meatballs from drying out.
- Make the meatball mixture. Squeeze the bread crumbs to remove any excess milk before mixing with the egg, herbs and spices, and cooked aromatics. Mix in the ground beef and ground pork using your hands.
Heidi’s Tip: If you find the meatball mixture sticking to your hands, wet them under running water. This should make it much easier to shape the meatballs.
- Shape the meatballs. You should be able to get 18 meatballs from this recipe.
- Bake the meatballs. Cook them on a rimmed baking sheet until browned all over, flipping only once halfway through.
- Make the marinara sauce. Cook some garlic in oil until fragrant, then stir in the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and fresh basil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and leave the sauce to simmer while the meatballs bake.
- Cook the pasta. Generously salt the pasta water to season the noodles, and cook the spaghetti for 2 minutes less than the box instructs.
Heidi’s Tip: Reserve ½ cup of the starchy pasta water to thin out the marinara and help the pasta cling to the sauce.
- Bring everything together. After draining the spaghetti, return it to the pot and toss with the meatballs and half of the marinara sauce. Divide among your pasta bowls and top the spaghetti and meatballs with as much extra sauce as you like.
FAQs
I’ve made meatballs both ways countless times, but for this recipe I prefer baking them.
Baking the meatballs lets you focus on preparing the sauce and cooking the spaghetti; if you had to babysit the meatballs at the same time, I think that would be overwhelming.
I used a few tricks to keep the meatballs super moist and tender.
First, this recipe calls for both ground beef and ground pork. Ground beef adds lots of meaty flavor while ground pork adds some much-needed fat (remember that fat = moisture!).
Second, I use fresh bread crumbs rather than dry (again, more moisture). The bread crumbs get soaked in milk for added insurance against dryness.
Last but definitely not least, I keep a close eye on the meatballs near the end of their bake time. Overcooking meatballs is a guaranteed way to dry them out and make them tough.
Meatballs, yes. Spaghetti noodles, no.
If you freeze the spaghetti noodles in the sauce, they’ll be mushy when thawed.
But you can definitely freeze the baked meatballs in the sauce for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the fridge before warming on the stove.
Storage Tips
Leftover spaghetti and meatballs will last up to 5 days if stored airtight in the fridge. Note that the spaghetti noodles will soften over time as they soak up the marinara.
What to Serve With Spaghetti and Meatballs
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below, leave a comment to tell us what you think, and tag me on Instagram @foodiecrush.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
This is the easiest recipe for homemade spaghetti and meatballs. A 5-ingredient marinara sauce simmers while the meatballs bake, then everything is tossed together with spaghetti noodles.
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Servings 8
Calories 690kcal
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup yellow onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ¾ cup coarse fresh bread crumbs
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
For the Spaghetti & Sauce*
- 1 28-ounce can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, with purée
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 sprigs fresh basil, plus more basil for garnish
- 1 pound spaghettl
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
Make the Meatballs:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. In a small skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool until just warm.
Place the bread crumbs in a small bowl, add milk, and let stand for 5 minutes. Squeeze the milk from the breadcrumbs and add to a medium bowl with the egg, parsley, oregano, salt, pepper, and reserved onion mixture. Add the ground meats and mix with your hands just until combined. Do not overmix or the meatballs will be tough instead of light and fluffy.
Using wet hands, shape the meat mixture into 18 meatballs, then line them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the tops are browned, about 20 minutes, then turn and bake until cooked through, 15 minutes more. Remove from the oven.
Make the Marinara Sauce:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and season generously with kosher salt. Meanwhile, make the marinara sauce. Pour the tomatoes and purée into a bowl and crush with your hands or the the back of a spoon, and set aside.
In a large cold skillet, add the extra-virgin olive oil and garlic cloves, and bring to medium heat. As the garlic begins to sizzle, stir occasionally, and cook until fragrant and golden, about 5 minutes. Monitor the heat so the garlic doesn’t cook too quickly or burn.
Very carefully stir the tomato paste into the garlic and oil—take care so the oil doesn’t splatter and burn you as the paste is added—and cook for 1-2 minutes. Carefully spoon the tomatoes into the pan with the oil and paste and season with salt and pepper. Add the basil sprigs and bring to a boil. Reduce to a bubbling simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Stir to mix the oil that rises to the top, then discard the basil sprigs and garlic. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for 10 minutes.
Cook the Spaghetti, Then Assemble:
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in boiling water just 2 minutes shy of suggested cooking time on the packaging. Drain the pasta reserving ½ cup of the pasta water. Add the pasta back to the pot with half of the marinara sauce and ¼ cup pasta water, tossing to coat. Add more water as needed. Divide the pasta among individual pasta bowls, and top each serving with more sauce and an equal number of meatballs. Sprinkle with Parmesan, fresh basil, and serve.
Notes
*Marinara sauce: You can also use 6 cups (48 ounces) of store-bought marinara sauce if you don’t want to make it from scratch.
Nutrition
Calories: 690kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 32g | Fat: 35g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 103mg | Sodium: 1630mg | Potassium: 1091mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 898IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 5mg
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