Make Dutch oven meatballs simmered in a rich red sauce for an easy, family-style dinner. The flavorful one-pot meal is perfect with al dente noodles or a fresh salad like arugula spinach salad.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Olive Oil: Saute the vegetables and sear the meatballs in olive oil.
- Vegetables: I prefer the taste of yellow or sweet onions, but you can also use shallots.
- Garlic: I recommend using six fresh garlic cloves between the meatballs and the sauce, but measure with your heart.
- Ground Beef: Use 80/20 ground beef to form the Dutch oven meatballs.
- Eggs: Bind the ingredients for the meatballs with two beaten eggs.
- Spices: Season the meatballs and gravy with kosher salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and dried herbs like basil, oregano, and parsley.
- Tomato Paste: Adding a spoonful of tomato paste intensifies the tomato flavor and deepens the color of the sauce.
- Wine: Add full-bodied flavor with dry white cooking wine.
- Tomatoes: Canned tomatoes and tomato puree are the foundation for the rich tomato sauce. I suggest using San Marzano peeled tomatoes.
- Heavy Cream: Include heavy cream for a creamy finish.
Additions and Substitutions
- Replace the ground beef with ground hot Italian sausage, pork, or veal. Try ground turkey or chicken for a lower-calorie option, or use a combination of ground meats for even more flavor.
- Incorporate fresh herbs instead of dried basil, oregano, parsley, or Italian seasoning instead of the individual dried herbs.
- Prepare simple sugo al pomodoro or store-bought marinara sauce if you don’t want to prepare the sauce in the recipe from scratch.
- Include diced green bell peppers and other vegetables in the tomato sauce.
How to Make Dutch Oven Meatballs and Gravy
The full recipe with measurements is in the recipe card below.
For the Meatballs
Step 1: Warm one tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes until they soften.
Step 2: Let the mixture cool to room temperature, and transfer it to a large mixing bowl with the ground beef.
Step 3: Add the beaten eggs, salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Knead it with your hands to combine. Then, form the mixture into 1-inch balls and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Tip: Oil your hands before kneading the ground beef mixture, and be careful about over-kneading, resulting in dense meatballs.
Step 4: Warm two tablespoons of olive oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the meatballs in a single layer, careful not to overcrowd the pan.
Cook until the meatballs are golden brown on all sides, for about 2-3 minutes. Transfer them to a baking sheet and set them aside. Cook the remaining meatballs in batches.
For the Sunday Sauce:
Step 1: Drain the leftover oil from the Dutch oven. Then, warm two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Saute for 5-10 minutes until the onions soften.
Step 2: Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute. Deglaze with red wine and carefully scrape up any stuck-on pieces on the bottom of the pot. Simmer for another minute.
Step 3: Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing the whole tomatoes into the pot with your hand. Then, stir in the tomato puree.
Step 4: Season with salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Reduce to low heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 5: Stir in the heavy cream and carefully nestle the seared meatballs into the sauce. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours over low heat, stirring occasionally.
Expert Tips
- When searing the meatballs, focus on developing a golden brown crust rather than cooking them through, as they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- If there’s excess oil in the pot after searing the meatballs, discard it, but keep the browned bits at the bottom because they will add flavor to the sauce once you deglaze with the ingredients for the sauce.
- If you prefer a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to process the sauce before adding the homemade meatballs.
- Maintaining a lower temperature as you simmer the meatballs in the sauce ensures you don’t have to worry about the heavy cream scorching as it cooks.
- This Dutch oven meatball recipe is a true labor of love, so take your time with it—it’s what the Danish call a hygge meal. The longer this dish simmers, the more flavorful it becomes.
If you enjoy the meatballs, try more dinner recipes!
Ways to Serve Dutch Oven Meatballs
This Dutch oven meatball recipe is perfect for special occasions like Sunday dinners, birthdays, or Christmas Eve dinners.
Spoon the meatballs and homemade sauce over your favorite pasta with freshly grated parmesan cheese or add them to crusty bread with mozzarella to make meatball subs. If you’re serving the meatballs as the main dish, here are some of my favorite side dishes to complete the meal.
- Salad: Vegetable Chopped Salad, Arugula Quinoa Salad
- Bread: Dutch Oven Sourdough Bread, Pao de Sal
- Veggies: Broccoletti, Air Fryer Zucchini and Squash, Spaghetti Squash
- Grains: Risotto Allo Zafferano
What to do with the Leftovers
- Refrigerate: Store leftovers in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- Freeze: Let the meatballs cool and transfer them into a freezer-safe container or bag. Dutch oven meatballs freeze for 2-3 months.
- Thaw: Thaw frozen meatballs and sauce in the refrigerator overnight.
- Reheat: Microwave individual leftovers or warm them on the stovetop in a Dutch oven.
More Meatball Recipes:
If you need more ideas for what to make with ground beef, try one of these ground beef recipes!
Dutch Oven Meatballs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- ½ medium bell pepper, deseeded and finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 pounds ground beef, 80/20
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, coarse ground
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- ½ medium bell pepper, deseeded and finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 1 can peeled tomatoes, 35-ounces
- 1 can tomato puree, 28-ounces
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
For the Meatballs:
- Warm one tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes until they soften.
- Let the mixture cool to room temperature, and transfer it to a large mixing bowl with the ground beef.
- Add the beaten eggs, salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Knead it with your hands to combine. Then, form the mixture into 1-inch balls and refrigerate for 30 minutes.Tip: Oil your hands before kneading the ground beef mixture, and be careful about over-kneading, resulting in dense meatballs.
- Warm two tablespoons of olive oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the meatballs in a single layer, careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook until the meatballs are golden brown on all sides, for about 2-3 minutes. Transfer them to a baking sheet and set them aside. Cook the remaining meatballs in batches.
For the Sunday Sauce:
- Drain the leftover oil from the Dutch oven. Then, warm two tablespoons of olive oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Saute for 5-10 minutes until the onions soften.
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook for another minute. Deglaze with red wine and carefully scrape up any stuck-on pieces on the bottom of the pot. Simmer for another minute.
- Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing the whole tomatoes into the pot with your hand. Then, stir in the tomato puree.
- Season with salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Reduce to low heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the heavy cream and carefully nestle the seared meatballs into the sauce. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours over low heat, stirring occasionally.
- When searing the meatballs, focus on developing a golden brown crust rather than cooking them through, as they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- If there’s excess oil in the pot after searing the meatballs, discard it, but keep the browned bits at the bottom because they will add flavor to the sauce once you deglaze with the ingredients for the sauce.
- If you prefer a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to process the sauce before adding the homemade meatballs.
- Maintaining a lower temperature as you simmer the meatballs in the sauce ensures you don’t have to worry about the heavy cream scorching as it cooks.
- This Dutch oven meatball recipe is a true labor of love, so take your time with it—it’s what the Danish call a hygge meal. The longer this dish simmers, the more flavorful it becomes.
- The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for professional advice.