Get ready to prepare the Olive Garden meatball recipe in a classy and fully hand-crafted way made popular by Olive Garden itself. This recipe is one of those Italian flavors that made Olive Garden an immensely popular family favorite. The copycat meatballs formula is a side dish of rich marinara sauce, known as Olive Garden meatball recipe for spaghetti, as it perfectly tops the spaghetti. If you are in search of new formulas to boost your home cooking abilities, we assure you that this meatballs formula is an ideal expansion to your rundown!
Olive Garden has made its way to all the home and professional cooks and has become a family favorite for presenting Italian flavors, e.g., Garden salad, hand-crafted soups, sauces, breadsticks, etc. But the test of this meatball recipe is something different as the completely cooked seared meatballs get flavorful, delicate, and succulent inside if you can cook it the proper way. It can be used as a side dish of pasta, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes and served alone as a delicious and juicy snack anytime.
Making this meatball recipe is not an intimidating process; rather, it’s an easy and quick one. We will fry the meatballs using sausage to get some seasoned compact, juicy and tender meatballs done. So, utilize this copycat recipe formula at home and make an exceptional addition to your home-cooked food menu.
Ingredients for this copycat recipe formula
To prepare this recipe, you will need these ingredients at hand:
- Ground beef, or hamburger, preferably toss (1½ pounds)
- Ground pork (½ pounds)
- Eggs (2 Pieces)
- Cup breadcrumbs (As much as required; usually ¾ cup)
- Italian seasoning (1 tablespoon)
- Garlic powder (½ tablespoon)
- Onion powder (¼ tablespoon)
- Dried oregano (⅛ tablespoon)
- Fresh parsley (1 tablespoon)
- Red wine, ideally Chianti (¼ cup)
- Powdered or ground Parmesan cheddar or cheese (¼ cup)
- Salt & ground dark pepper (For boosting the taste)
- Cooking spray
Serving the recipe ideally
To serve it ideally, and the most attractive way, serve it with the following dishes. However, you can also use it to top pasta as well.
- Home-cooked pasta of any type (spaghetti is the most used and ideal)
- Marinara sauce
- Powdered or ground cheddar or cheese
- Slashed parsley
- Crusty or dry bread
You can also use this recipe as a side dish of roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes.
Instructions for preparing this copycat recipe of Olive Garden
As discussed earlier, with the proper instructions followed, it is indeed pretty easy to prepare this Olive Garden meatball recipe copycat formula:
- At first, preheat your stove or oven to 360-degree Fahrenheit (182.2- degrees Celsius).
- Oil a simmering plate (roasting tray) properly.
- Take a perfect size bowl, and mix all the needed ingredients. Keep mixing until they get fully blended. Remember, you might need to add some extra breadcrumbs in some instances.
- Now, to boost the taste, use ground black pepper and salt.
(Pro tips: You can fry a sample, and check how it tastes and adjust it as per your desire later.)
- Keep the mixture in a sealed and chilled place to marinate it for at least an hour.
- When it is properly marinated, shape it into your preferred size and style meatballs.
- Arrange these meatballs on the greased roasting pan carefully and neatly without damaging the shape.
- Put the tray into your oven and cook for around 30 minutes.
- Check the meatballs properly and see whether they are thoroughly cooked. You can cook them for five more minutes, if necessary.
- Get rid of the excessive oil.
- At this point, spoon your warm marinara sauce on top of cooked pasta.
- Top a few meatballs.
- Finish the process by topping with parsley and parmesan cheese.
- At last, serve the seasoned compact, juicy and tender meatballs placing crust slices of bread on both sides.
Nutrition Information
On per serving of meatballs, the nutrition value counts as:
| Nutrients | Value | Daily Value |
| Calories | 160 | – |
| Total Fat | 13.3g | 20% |
| Saturated Fat | 6.3g | 32% |
| Trans Fat | 0.7g | – |
| Cholesterol | 22mg | 7% |
| Sodium | 353mg | 15% |
| Total Carbohydrate | 2.3g | 1% |
| Dietary Fiber | 1g | 4% |
| Total Sugars | 0g | – |
| Protein | 7.7g | – |
Source: My food diary
FAQ
How do I make sure my meatballs are moist?
Bread crumb is the most significant ingredient that actually makes the meatballs moist, as it is tender. It also helps to reheat the recipe later. So, make sure you have this ingredient in place. Besides, you must not also over-mix your meat with the other ingredients. Over-mixing will eventually result in dry, dense, and solid meatballs. Remember to keep them evenly sized; don’t go for too small or too big size either.
Why does my meatball fall apart?
It happens if you mess with the binder in use for preparing meatballs. As it holds the meatballs together, you must make sure it is properly made. For instance, we have used bread crumbs and eggs in our recipe as a meatball binder. The ideal approach to make it is going soft and gentle, and while shaping the binders, use grease on your hands so that it doesn’t stick to your hand. You should also be careful during frying your meatballs as they must not break apart; scrape the bottom of the pan gently as you go with the process.
The most amazing thing to tell you about this recipe is that you can use it as a side dish; you can use it to top other dishes and also as a separate dish itself. It is a perfect recipe for sharing, and your whole family will enjoy it to the fullest. So why waiting?
Our Copycat Olive Garden Meatball Recipe instructions will give you some perfectly season, well-cooked, amazingly flavored, delicate, and succulent meatballs within an hour. On top of that, your pan-fried meatballs, juicy and tender meatballs, will also be a big hit in family, among friends, and even and parties. Prepare this recipe to have a perfect food mix of flavorful, juicy, and tender meaty goodness at home right now.