This post may contain affiliate links. Click here for my affiliate disclosure. If you purchase items through my affiliate links, I receive a small commission but your price doesn't change.
This Italian Meatball Casserole doesn’t take many ingredients and can be thrown together in a hurry. (Yes, it is very possible to make meatballs in a hurry. Simply use your hands to pinch off the meatball mixture in golf ball-sized blobs and plop them in a dish. You can take the time to roll them nice and pretty if you so desire, but I usually omit that step. They get covered with sauce and cheese anyway!) This casserole doesn’t take any special ingredients – you probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboard!
Looking for other recipes that don’t take special ingredients? Click here for a picture index of my recipes that only use ingredients that can be purchased at a local grocery store! (Some of the recipes in the index do call for sweeteners that I purchase online, but these can easily be subbed out with any of your favorite locally-obtained sweeteners using this sweetener conversion chart.)
Not only is this meatball casserole the ultimate comfort food, but it’s also pretty kid-friendly! What kid doesn’t like meatballs and cheese and pizza sauce?
Note on pasta sauce: all pasta/pizza/spaghetti sauce will have sugar listed in the nutritional info because of the tomatoes they contain, but you want to look for a sauce that has no added sugar in the ingredients. We buy Priano brand from Aldi.
Since this recipe makes two 9″x13″ pans of meatballs, you’ll probably have leftovers for another meal. Score! In our family of six, that doesn’t happen often. We LOVE to have enough leftovers to make another supper so we “get a night off”. Since it makes two pans, this is also a good recipe to use if you’re taking supper over to someone else and want to make enough for your family and their family combined without making two separate dinners.
As always, check out the Notes section of the recipe for extra info. Check out the links in and below the recipe to see the products I use and recommend. Some of the links included in the recipe and blog post are affiliate links, which means that if you make purchases through these links, I make a small commission to help defray the costs of running this blog (at no extra charge to you). Thanks for your help!
You may also enjoy:
- Starting THM
- my recipe index
- my recipes grouped by fuel type, allergy info, and theme
- all my casserole recipes
- a roundup post of casserole recipes
Want more simple meal ideas? Check out my cookbook! It has lots of easy, healthy versions of our family favorites:
- 2½ - 3 lb. ground beef
- 1 c. unsweetened almond milk*
- ½ c. old-fashioned oats (use gluten-free if necessary)**
- ½ c. grated Parmesan cheese (the green can kind)
- 2 eggs
- 1 T. each dried minced onion, Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. each oregano, ground sage, black pepper
- -
- 24 oz. no-sugar-added pizza sauce
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Knead the meatball ingredients together (I use my hands) until thoroughly mixed. Form into golf ball-sized meatballs and place into 2 greased 9"x13" pans.
- Pour the pizza sauce over the meatballs and top with as much cheese as you like. Bake (uncovered) at 350* for 30 minutes or until done.
**This amount of oats adds less than 1g net carbs per meatball.
Note on pasta sauce: all pasta/pizza/spaghetti sauce will have sugar listed in the nutritional info because of the tomatoes they contain, but you want to look for a sauce that has no added sugar in the ingredients. We buy Priano brand from Aldi.
Have you tried making this and freezing it then thawing and baking later? Any suggestions on how to prepare it for that?
I haven’t, but I think some other people have. 🙂 I would personally just make the meatballs and freeze them uncooked individually on a cookie sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag for storage (unless you have an abundance of baking pans to put in the freezer). Then thaw the meatballs when you’re ready to bake, put them in a baking pan, add the sauce and cheese, and bake.
This was delicious! My very picky 6-year old daughter said: “It tastes like sausage.” 🙂 She only ate two though… but that’s a success in this household! She said she didn’t like it because it was “too sausagy and too yummy.” LOL. Go figure. Thank you, Briana! On my part, I like the texture; it’s springy like you would get from “Perfectly Cooked” meatballs from the frozen aisle…. except, healthier.
Haha…gotta love those childish descriptions. 😛 I’ll take it! I’m glad you enjoyed them!
Briana!! This was delicious!!! My husband scored some ground beef tonight…. been scarce here…. so glad I found this recipe!!! So easy, had everything on hand. We will definitely have this again! But the serving size… 14-16?? Not in this house! ❤️🤣
Would this work turning it into a meatloaf?:)
I imagine yes, but I’ve never tried that. You could always just make this meatloaf recipe and bake it with the additional toppings: https://www.briana-thomas.com/mommys-meatloaf/
Could you do the cauli mashed potato with this and still be with in guidelines?
Absolutely!
How carbs does this dish have?
I’m afraid I don’t have nutrition info calculated for my older recipes at this point, but I’ve been adding it to my newer recipes. Maybe sometime in the future I’ll be able to go back and calculate it for all the older recipes as well. 🙂
These were absolutely fabulous! Thanks for a great recipe!
This was excellent! Big hit in our house tonight! Looking forward to left overs. Thank you!
I’ve had this on the list to make for ages, and finally did tonight. I can’t believe I waited this long!! This is definitely going to become a “sweatpants” meal for our family! We had it with a salad for us adults, and a slice of buttered bread for the kiddos. Even my picky eaters said it was, “tasty mom!” Thanks so much!!
I’m having trouble printing the recipes. The new window pops up and it shows the print screen and then it automatically closes down. Anyone else experiencing this?
I’m sorry you’re having trouble, Cathy! I’ve heard from a few people who have trouble but I’m never able to recreate the issue and I don’t know what causes it! I always print from a computer using Microsoft Edge as my browser. If you’re on a phone, perhaps try from a computer and/or try a different browser. Eventually I’m planning to update my recipe plugin (when I have time), so maybe that will fix the problem as well.
I had the same problem. When I passed my printer there were a bunch of copies of the recipe 🥴
These meatballs are delicious! Thanks for sharing.
U can just use water as the liquid. The point is to steam the inside of the meatball. That makes them tender. Almond flour works too for the starch.
Im trying the sautéed shredded cabbage for a noodle accompaniment. The sauce BEGS for a noodle!
We re dairyfree except for butter and some cream, plus almost grainfree, to try to quell my dd’s autoimmune disorder. Lowcarb recipes help alot, except for the cheese, which we miss lol
I’m working on making these for the first time and wanted to see what you thought about exchanging the meat from beef to ground turkey. Would it affect how well they hold together? Thanks in advance!
I’m afraid I don’t really have any experience with ground turkey. I’m sorry!
I’m freezing half the meatballs. Freeze them raw or cook them first?
Hmm…never tried it but I’d personally bake them first, then just warm them back up after freezing.
I’ve made these a couple times (they may have been one of the first THM meals I made for the family) but I have a question.
My daughter has been asking for porcupine meatballs (meatballs with rice in them) and I’m trying to modify this recipe.
If I add some brown rice (maybe a little less oatmeal) and then left off the cheese would that make it an E meal? I’d like to accomodate her request and still have it THM friendly. I told her I’d have to use brown rice—she rolled her eyes but said it would be okay. 🙂
I’m kind of new to modifying recipes so I thought I’d ask what you thought—-thanks for these, they’re popular at my house.
Any help appreciated,
Hi Jean! Because of the ground beef in this recipe, these meatballs will always be either an S or a crossover (if you add too many carbs). To make them an E, you would need to use a very lean ground meat (96% lean, I believe) such as turkey or venison and omit the cheese on top as well as some of the Parmesan cheese in the meatballs themselves. Whole eggs are S ingredients as well, but 2 eggs spread over this many servings is fine. If you make those changes, you could add as much brown rice as you want! Your other option is to keep these in an S setting as written and just use a little brown rice (in place of the oatmeal) to stay within your 10g net carb limit in a THM:S meal. I hope they turn out well for you!
Hey, I am trying not to eat dairy as I don’t think it sits well with me. Is it possible to substitute the grated parmesan for something else? Or maybe just omit it completely? 🙂
You could experiment with using a combination of low-carb flours in its place – like THM Baking Blend. Maybe use a little less than the cheese called for so it doesn’t get too dry.
Have you ever replaced the ground beef with ground turkey? We are trying to eat beef only once a week so was thinking I might try turkey for this instead.
No – in fact, I’ve never cooked with ground turkey and I’m not really sure how it acts! It would be worth a try, though.
I haven’t made this recipe (yet!) but I’ve used ground turkey for meatballs before. They tasted great, but didn’t hold together as well as beef. That was probably my error – didn’t use bread crumbs or oats, etc, for a binder. Seems like it would work for this recipe since it does have oats in it.
Thanks! I think I’ll try it. 🙂
I only have 75% ground beef…do you think that will make the sauce too greasy?
I definitely prefer a leaner hamburger, but you’re welcome to try that.
I ended up cooking the meatballs on a baking sheet for half the time to cook a lot of the fat out. Then I transferred them to my casserole dishes and added the sauce and cheese and finished baking them. Fed my family and then took the rest to a pot luck. They were a big hit! Lots of compliments. Thanks for this great recipe!
Oh good, I’m glad it worked out for you! That was a really good idea.
I know with spaghetti, it will not be low carb, but it should be so delicious
This recipe is a total winner! They got gobbled up! Thanks!
Just dropping a note to thank you for this recipe.
My alterations were just in the specific.
I used approximately 1 pound of each:
ground turkey, ground beef, mild Italian sausage
Lurved it!
Trying to meal prep for two weeks at a time due to hectic schedule…anyone ever made this and then freeze and thaw to eat at a later date?
Hi Lori! I have heard of people doing that, but I don’t remember exactly how they did it. I’m guessing you could freeze the meatballs, then thaw, add the sauce and cheese, and bake.
These were AWESOME!! My picky boys even scarfed them up. Adding this recipe to my rotation!! Thank you!
This recipe on meal planner pro comes up listing
1 tsp. each oregano, ground sage, black pepper 3 separate times, it was confusing
https://mealplannerpro.com/recipe-search-engine/Italian-Meatball-Casserole-1983230
I’m sorry about that, Wendy, but I’m not the one who put the recipe on there, and no one received my permission to do so. It’s always safest to get recipes directly from my site. 🙂
YUMMY!!! Made the meatballs tonight and will definitely be making them again.Thanks for such a fantastic meal!
Trying to make this wonderful dish tonight for tomorrow’s lunch & just found out that I only have the vanilla unsweetened almond milk 🙁 I don’t have coconut milk either 🙁 can I substitute the almond milk for anything else? Thanks
You could try using water and a little cream or half and half. 🙂
Oh.my.WORD!! This is amazing!
I made a small version of this last night using only .5 pounds of ground beef (scaled the recipe to size, roughly) and homemade spaghetti sauce from the freezer. To form the meatballs, I used my cookie scoop and just scooped the meatballs into my 8×8 dish. This is a simple, yummy dish. I served mine over zoodles and the rest with pasta for others. The leftovers today were great. I stirred in some cottage cheese before I warmed it and it is a loose version of noodleless lasagna…Beefy, cheesey, tomato-y goodness, yummmm! Thanks, Briana!
Made this last night. Loved, loved, loved it – family hit already! I’ve been sniping cold meatballs out of the fridge all morning. Lots of leftovers for supper tonight.
Haha…I’m glad I’m not the only one that eats cold meatballs!
Oh my goodness! I will be trying these… when will your cookbook be available again on Amazon? I have it on my wait list…
Hi Libby! It’s supposed to be there now, actually. I sent a bunch of inventory to Amazon’s warehouses a week ago, and they’re just now getting it scanned in. Right now the book is appearing as available for purchase but “on backorder, available the 21st.” I know they have the inventory so it shouldn’t be nearly that long. Amazon confuses me…. 😛 But it should be completely available very soon. “Necessary Foods” is my seller name.
These look good, and I think I might make them this Sunday. Just wondering what do you make to go with them? I’ll probably do a salad and garlic bread, But feel like I need something else too.
I’d probably do green beans and a salad. 🙂
This may sound dumb, but I’m thinking pouring over spaghetti.
Made this for dinner tonight. It was a huge hit. Yummy!
Making this for supper tonight. Thank you!
Another hit from your kitchen. Thank you!
Mmmm – looks yummy! I’ll be putting this on my list to make this week 🙂 Thanks!