These meatballs with ricotta are extremely tasty, soft, and delightful. There aren’t many ingredients at all. Serve them with spaghetti for a filling supper.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 32 meatballs |
Ingredients
- ½ onion, minced
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
- ¼ cup packed chopped Italian parsley
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
- ⅓ cup dry bread crumbs
- 1 (28 ounce) jar marinara sauce
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Sauté onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir garlic into onion and turn off heat. Transfer onion mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Stir ground beef, ricotta cheese, parsley, egg, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper with onion mixture until almost combined; stir in bread crumbs and continue to mix until thoroughly blended.
- Roll about 2 tablespoons of mixture into a 1-inch ball for each meatball. Pour remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in same skillet used to cook onions. Place skillet over medium heat and brown meatballs on all sides in hot oil, about 5 minutes. Hold a crumpled paper towel in tongs and use it to remove excess grease from skillet.
- Pour marinara sauce and water over meatballs in skillet. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until meatballs are cooked through and no longer pink in the center, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 331 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 19 g |
| Cholesterol | 75 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 16 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 865 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These are my go to meatballs, they are simply wonderful! I make them as written, except I use half ground beef and half sweet sausage. I also bake them. I find that’s the best way to cook them. Chef John’s recipes are fabulous!
Delicous. I’ve made this several times and have altered the ingredients to the following: 0.85 lbs ground turkey (half of the package from Costco), about 1/2 cup of ricotta, 1/4 cup of coarsely ground oatflour, 1/4 cup packed of cilantro, 1 egg, 1 clove minced garlic, 1/2 minced onion, 1.5 tsp salt, pepper. Instead of pan frying, I’ve swtiched to browning these in the oven at 425 like another one of Chef John’s meatball recipes. About 10 min on one side, 5 min on the other side. Much easier than dealing with soft meatballs in a pan. While the meatballs are in the oven, I made the gravy, 1-2TBSP butter, 1-2TBSP flour, and about 1 cup of meaty homemade turkey stock. This is best when made into a nice thick gravy. Finish the meatballs in the gravy and serve in a bowl. Very tender and deicious meatballs along with a nice thick delicous gravy. The pic shows a bit runnier gravy than ideal.
This is my #1 meatball recipe. They always turn out light and flavorful. I usually bake them, drain the grease and pop them into a pan of sauce. The extras are put into a plastic bag and frozen for later. They still taste great.
Totally love the flavor. But like many people, mine were very delicate, and I had several of them fall apart. Maybe cut back on the ricotta next time or up the breadcrumbs? I also thought about maybe adding the ricotta to chef John’s Italian meatball recipe and trying it that way.
These are seriously delicious! The ricotta really puts this recipe above all others I have tried ( even my Italian in-laws recipe) Awesome!
I thought these meatballs were very flavorful. I made them with low fat ricotta and low fat beef and I felt as if I was eating healthy. I had to be careful with the meatballs while cooking them in the skillet as some wanted to fall apart. This may because I didn’t use whole milk ricotta, but I’m not sure. They were delicious and my family loved them.
Best meatballs ever! So tender and juicy. I actually mixed half hot Italian sausage with the beef. amazing!!!
Excellent recipe! Followed recipe exactly and my husband said they’re the best meatballs I’ve ever made and I’ve made a lot.
I didn’t put any cayenne or garlic in this. I also used too much meat cause the food saver bag of ground meat was what we had in the freezer. I really liked the flavor and even though I ended up with meat mush instead of meatballs it was delicious! I put it over a Martin’s Potato bread bun. Just worked out fine for me and will supply 2 to 3 more meals for me..
Butchered this recipe but it came out great.
Loved it
We loved these meatballs! Watching the video was helpful on how to put it together. I browned them in the skillet and then baked them off in a pyrex dish 20 minutes at 350. Terrific flavor.
The MOST TENDER meatballs EVER, and I’m a meatball SNOB…I’ve only ever liked my mom’s meatballs (made with diced onions & green peppers)… practically meatball nirvana, so I’m not sure what led me to try your ricotta meatball recipe but God bless the day I found it! They’re sooo tender! I skipped the cayenne pepper (not a fan), added lots of garlic powder, and added mom’s green peppers…now I’ve definitely achieved meatball heaven! Mom would have LOVED these, thanks!
These meatballs had great flavor; however, they fell apart. It is clearly a looser consistency than I normally make. I followed the recipe except for the parsley – didn’t have that much fresh on hand. I used a bit more breadcrumbs to offset the lack of parsley. Before browning in the oil, I put the meatballs in the refrigerator for about 20 min while I was working on my marinara sauce. The first batch I browned fell apart completely but the 2nd batch held together a bit better. I will try again but with the required parsley. BTW – this is the only Chef John recipe that I’ve not been willing to give 5+ stars.
I loved the flavor. Made it today , I had a hard time keeping the meatballs together when I was browning them. They kept falling apart. I followed the recipe exactly except I used reduced-fat ricotta, could that have made the difference? Still a great tender and very flavorful recipe
Read a few reviews to see recommendations from.people who had made this recipe. I was making 1.5 lbs so used more ingredients but not quite 1.5 times. I replaced the breadcrumbs with quick oats, didn’t use as much ricotta, and added dried basil. I also baked them at 425 for 20 minutes, and they came out great! The only adjustment I would make is reducing the salt. I used 1.5 teaspoons for the 1.5 lbs of meat, and I would reduce it to a teaspoon. I may make other adjustments as I make them more, but definitely recommend this recipe.
Best meatballs!
These were so easy and delicious! I did as everyone suggested and baked for 25 minutes on parchment paper, turning over half way through baking. I also dabbed each meatball on paper towels after baking to absorb the excess liquid before adding the meat balls right to a bowl of hot sauce and served immediately. So good, moist and flavorful. Much easier and cleaner than sautéing them.
I didn’t follow it to the Tee. Meatballs always have to have pork too so I used 50% pork with 20% fat. They were delicious & the most tender meatball I ever made. I also brown in the oven rather than the more cumbersome frying pan. Real Italians don’t even do that & simmer in the sauce keeping all the fat. Next time I will use half the ricotta & adjust accordingly.
i have made these several times, however, I always bake them and then add to my sauce. I also add some minced zucchini to my sauce.
I served this to my kids for Valentine’s day. It was a huge hit and have been asked when are you making the meatballs again.