A little different than traditional Italian meatballs, Sicilian Meatballs with pine nuts and currants bake in a basil marinara sauce. They'll be your new favorite meatball!
Why I love Sicilian meatballs
One of my favorite and time saving features of this recipe is that the meatballs bake in the oven right in the basil, oregano, and thyme spiked crushed tomato sauce.
Cooking the meatballs in the sauce accomplishes three important aspects of the recipe.
- The meatballs soak up the Italian flavors of the sauce as they bake.
- The sauce is enhanced and has a richer taste from meatballs baking in it.
- And lastly it speeds up preparation of the recipe with less hands-on prep time. There is no need to stand at the stove tending to the meatballs as the cook.
Ingredients
Unlike traditional Italian meatballs, this Sicilian counterpart includes sweet, tiny currants and crunchy, mild and slightly buttery pine nuts. These two ingredients are frequent additions to dishes from this region of Italy.
Currants are smaller versions with a similar taste to raisins. Find them in the dried fruit aisle of the grocery store.
- canned crushed tomatoes
- Italian herb blend
- kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper
- bread ~ Use a soft sandwich bread. White or whole wheat are good choices.
- whole milk ~ Skim or 2% milk are alternatives.
- large eggs
- fresh garlic
- fresh parsley
- dried oregano
- allspice
- meatloaf mix ~ A combo of ground beef, pork and veal available at grocery stores. Check the meat department for this package of 3 ground meats.
- seasoned bread crumbs
- currants ~ Raisins are an alternative.
- pine nuts
- grated Parmesan cheese
- loaf of crusty bread ~ a must to serve along side!
Scroll to the complete recipe for full quantities of the ingredients.
Suggestions and tips
- The meatballs are extra tender with the addition of bread soaked and mashed with whole milk. Be sure to really mash the bread. You do not want any bread chunks in the meatballs.
- Be sure to gently mix the meatball ingredients. You want to mix the ingredients until just combined. Over mixing makes for tough meatballs.
- Try not to tightly form the meatballs. This makes for a rubbery and overly chewy meatball. Oil your hands to help easily for the mixture into balls.
- Form all meatballs to be the same size. This will ensure that they all cook at the same rate.
What to serve with Sicilian meatballs
Start off the meal with fun to eat Antipasto Skewers. Serve the baked Sicilian meatballs with a side of these delicious Parmesan Buttered Noodles and a simple green salad, tucked into long rolls for a satisfying sandwich, or with chunks of crusty bread to sop up the delicious sauce.
Sicilian Meatballs with Basil Marinara is a filling and delicious comfort food recipe that would be a welcome addition to any freezer.
How to store meatballs
Refrigerator: Store meatballs in an airtight container (these meal prep containers are my favorites) for up to 4 days.
Freeze: The meatballs and sauce can be frozen together in a resealable freezer bag, glass storage container, or plastic storage container. To serve, thaw meatballs and sauce in the refrigerator overnight.
How to reheat meatballs
Meatballs can be reheated straight from the refrigerator. If the meatballs are frozen, you'll get the best results when you thaw frozen them before heating. Reheat them in any of the following methods.
- Oven: Heat in the oven in an oven safe dish at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes.
- Microwave: Transfer the meatballs to microwave safe dish and cover lightly with plastic wrap or a pepper towel. Microwave on 70 percent power for 2 minutes. Continue heating at 1 minute intervals until heated through.
- Stovetop: Transfer the meatballs to a pot. Heat over medium low heat. Stir occasionally and heat for a total time of about 10 - 20 minutes.
One more thing
Did you try this recipe?
Let me know by leaving a comment and a star rating below. Share it on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
Thanks ~ Amy
Recipe
Sicilian Meatballs with Basil Marinara
Ingredients
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb blend
- 2 teaspoons salt divided
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper divided
- 2 slices sandwich bread white or wheat, torn into small pieces
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- 1 ½ pounds ground meatloaf mix ground beef, pork and veal
- 2 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs
- ¼ cup dried currants
- 2 tablespoons pine nuts
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese plus more for serving
- 1 loaf of crusty bread for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- In a 9 by 13-inch baking dish, pour in the crushed tomatoes. Add the Italian herb blend, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and stir to combine. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the bread and milk. Using a fork, mash the bread until it resembles a paste. Add the eggs, garlic, parsley, oregano, and allspice and stir to combine. Add the ground meat, bread crumbs, currants, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper and mix gently to combine the ingredients.
- Form the meatball mixture into 16 meatballs and place in baking dish with the crushed tomatoes.
- Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through.
- Serve meatballs and sauce in flat bowls with chunks of crusty bread to soak up the sauce.
Notes
- The meatballs are extra tender with the addition of bread soaked and mashed with whole milk. Be sure to really mash the bread. You do not want any bread chunks in the meatballs.
- Be sure to gently mix the meatball ingredients. You want to mix the ingredients until just combined. Over mixing makes for tough meatballs.
- Try not to tightly form the meatballs. This makes for a rubbery and overly chewy meatball. Oil your hands to help easily for the mixture into balls.
- Form all meatballs to be the same size. This will ensure that they all cook at the same rate.
Annie says
Haven't made this, but if anyone believes the prep on this is only 15 mins, u are insane. Realistically it's 2-3× that by the time u collect, measure, mix & form the balls.Im constantly perplexed by recipe posters when they think 99.9% of the recipes out there only take 15 mins of prep. That's probably if u are making a dump & go soup with all canned/jarred products & eyeballing everything. Just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading!
Amy Casey says
Thanks so much for catching my mistake Annie. My proof reader (lol it's me) should have done a better job. Obviously all those steps can't be done in 15 minutes. I appreciate pointing this misstep out to me. Let me know when you give this recipe a try.