These Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs are one of my favorite go-to recipes for basically anything. They taste great on their own as an appetizer, but also work well with pasta or on sub sandwiches with melty cheese. They’re freezer-friendly, too — meaning you can make a double-batch now and save some for later.
I realllllly wanted to title this post “slow cooker Italian meat-a-balls” because that’s how I always say it in my head. But we’re trying to keep it profesh around here, so the traditional spelling wins out (though you’ll totally say “meat-a-balls” in your head now, too. You’re welcome).
This is one of the recipes I made pre-baby for our freezer stash, and I made a royal mistake with them — I froze all eleventy billion (or, like, 40) of them in one container. Do you know where I’m going with this? It means I had to thaw all 40 meatballs for me, my husband and my mom (who was staying with us at the time) at once. I was shaking in my boots that some of these delicious meat-a-balls would end up going to waste.
How to Make Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Well it turns out I completely underestimated my husband’s love for the meatball, because they were all gone — GONE — in two days. Down the hatch in meatball sub form, on top of pasta, cold and sliced and placed atop whole-grain toast (YUM, really), etc. OK, OK — my mom and I helped, too.
Needless to say, this recipe is one of those low-effort, high-result recipes that you’re going to want to make again and again (just maybe freeze them in batches if you do, unless you love eating meatballs for two days straight like my husband).
The slow cooker is my friend in so many ways, and if you have one, you probably agree. It’s so helpful for those hustle-bustle days when dinner is the last thing you want to/have time to make. It also comes in handy when it’s 100 degrees outside and you want to avoid that oven at all costs (except maybe to bake chocolate chip cookies. No amount of heat will keep me from my cookies). And I love using it to make big ol’ batches of easy-peasy foods like these here meatballs, which I intended to use for at least three to four separate meals over the course of, like, a month (see above how that did not go as planned, but all is well).
Making meatballs in the slow cooker is especially delicious because I feel like slow-cooked meat and tomatoes are some of the best things to exist in life. But with a slow cooker, you have to do very little prep work. So the end result is something that tastes like you slaved over it for hours and hours when in reality, you spent about 15 minutes making it happen. WINNER.
How to Serve Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Like I mentioned before, we enjoyed these meatballs as cheesy meatball subs, on top of spaghetti with classic Italian bread, cold for lunch on toasted, crusty, whole wheat sourdough bread and just by themselves with a big Italian salad on the side. Finish that easy Italian-themed dinner with panna cotta, one bowl olive oil cake, or moist blueberry ricotta cake.
Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs
Ingredients
- ½ cup milk
- 4 eggs
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 12 ounces mild Italian sausage, bulk, or casings removed
- 1 ¼ cups Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 6 cups marinara pasta sauce , 2, 24 ounce jars or homemade marinara pasta sauce
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs until combined. Add ground beef, Italian sausage, breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and garlic powder; stir with a wooden spoon or mix with your fingers until well combined.
- Heat broiler to high; place an oven rack about 4 to 5 inches from the broiler. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or oil. Using your hands, shape (about 40) 1 to 2-inch meatballs from the mixture; place on prepared baking sheets.
- Broil meatballs 6 to 8 minutes, flipping halfway through, until browned. Transfer to a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Top meatballs evenly with sauce. Cover and cook on low 4 to 5 hours in the slow cooker until meatballs are cooked through to an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees F.
- Serve on top of pasta, on split hoagie rolls with melty cheese for meatball sub sandwiches, alongside buttery mashed potatoes or on their own as an appetizer.
- TO FREEZE: Let meatballs and sauce cool completely. Place in a resealable plastic bag and freeze in a single layer; or, freeze in a Tupperware container. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then heat the thawed mixture (meatballs and sauce) together until heated through.
Notes
- This recipe makes a lot of meatballs, so if you don’t plan to freeze any I’d suggest halving the recipe.
- Adapted from Taste of Home
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Mary Beth — I froze them after everything was cooked, in the sauce.
At what stage would you freeze them?
Looks delicious! Tuck those meatballs into some bread, top with mozzarella and I’m in heaven!
Mrs Kelly — From my experience the sauce doesn’t get watered down, but I often use the store-bought sauce (blasphemy, I know ;)). If you’ve got a thick homemade sauce it should be just fine!
I have one concern before jumping in to this one. I’ve made a big batch of home made sauce and it will go GREAT with these. However, doesn’t the sauce get watered down in the crock pot? Seems like it would. That’s my only complaint about slow cookers, some recipes get watery and yuk!
It looks so delicious this recipe. I prefer to serve it with linguini.
Awesome!
Sherry — I used lean ground beef for the recipe.
What’s the best ground beef to use? Lean or a ground chuck?
I’ve been making meatballs cooked in sauce on the stovetop for years, and was craving them but it’s still so very hot here I thought about using the crock pot. Thanks! Luckily grass fed beef was on sale so this is perfect.