Meatball Casserole aka Meatball Parmesan

If you need family dinner this Meatball Casserole should be it. Flavorful low carb meatballs covered in sauce & cheese for the best meatball parmesan ever.

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Ingredients

8 servings

Meatball Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey

• 1 lb Italian sausage

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella

• 1/3 cup grated or shredded parmesan

• 1 shredded zucchini about 1 cup

• 1 egg

• 2 tsp dried minced onion

• 2 tsp dried minced garlic

• 2 tsp dried basil

• 1 tsp salt

Casserole Ingredients:

• 1 cup no sugar added pasta sauce

• 8 oz shredded cheese (I used a two cheese pizza blend of mozzarella and provolone)

Instructions

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1. Preheat oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray

2. Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix thoroughly. Make about 24 meatballs and put them in the casserole dish.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through. Carefully drain the cooking liquid from the casserole dish.

4. Top with the sauce and cheese. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

5. Optional: I broiled for 3-4 minutes at the end to toast the cheese. Watch it carefully if you put it under the broiler. The cheese can burn easily.

Recipe Notes

Substitutions: you can use any type of ground meat (beef, pork, turkey, chicken) and any type of Italian sausage (pork, chicken, or turkey) in these meatballs.

You may also omit the zucchini or sub in chopped spinach if you prefer.

Nutrition Facts

Amount Per Serving Calories 427 Calories from Fat 270 % Daily Value* Total Fat 30g 46% Saturated Fat 13g 65%Cholesterol 131mg 44% Sodium 1237mg 52% Potassium 535mg 15% Total Carbohydrates 5g 2% Sugars 2g Protein33g 66%

If you are looking for a new family dinner this easy Meatball Casserole should be it. Juicy, flavorful meatballs baked until golden and then covered with tomato sauce and cheese. My low carb Meatball Parmesan Casserole was a hit with my family and should be a hit with yours.

MEATBALL CASSEROLE AKA MEATBALL PARMESAN – LOW CARB, KETO, GRAIN FREE, GLUTEN FREE, THM S

When I was in college I was still a vegetarian. One of my favorite meals from the dining hall takeout was a vegetarian Italian meatball parmesan sub. I have no idea what those “meat”balls were made of and I probably don’t want to know but it was really good. It was smothered in tomato sauce and topped with provolone. I’d look forward to Tuesdays so I could get dining hall take-out and my favorite meatball parmesan sub. Almost fifteen years later that is the only dining hall food I recall and that is my inspiration for my meatball casserole.

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To make this meatball casserole you only need a handful of common ingredients: ground meat, ground sausage, egg, zucchini, shredded cheese, marinara sauce, and a few dried herbs.

That hidden zucchini in my low carb meatballs is my sneaky mom favorite addition. My kids don’t even notice it’s in there. If you really want to hide it you can peel the green skin off first. If you would like to substitute another veggie for the zucchini I would recommend chopped spinach. You can also just leave the green stuff out and serve this with some Caesar salad, green beans, or roasted broccoli. The low carb meatball parmesan will still work.

I just dump all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix it by hand. In the photo above you can see all the different layered ingredients for the low carb meatballs in my meatball parmesan. For a bowl of raw meat, it looks pretty nice.

Here the meatballs are after forming them. I use a large cookie scoop to simplify the process. Since there is no need to get up to your elbows in raw meat this is a great task to get the kids involved in. Mine are pros at scoooping low carb meatballs by now. Make sure to also check out the video below.

See how easy this dish is to make: 

 

Bonus: this easy meatball recipe also freezes really well! Go ahead and make a double batch and then next time you want an easy Meatball Casserole just thaw, dump into the baking dish, and cover with sauce and cheese. Meatball Parmesan in a jiffy!

I love to always have a bag of low carb meatballs in the freezer for nights that I don’t want to cook. Those and frozen taco meat have saved us from spending too much money on take-out more than once.

Here are the meatballs for the meatball parmesan after the initial baking step. If there is any liquid from the cooking process carefully drain it before adding the sauce and cheese.

I attempted to create an easy Italian meatball casserole recipe back in April and it was edible but not blog worthy. I tried again the other day and this time it was perfect. I could eat this Italian meatball casserole twice a week for the rest of my life and never get sick of it.

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I need to give a little shout out to the Emile Henry ceramic company for this beautiful casserole dish. I absolutely love it. It is gorgeous, distributed the heat evenly for this casserole and washed up in a cinch.