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.
Key Ingredients
- Olive Oil: Use olive oil to sauté the vegetables, plus a little extra to coat your hands when rolling them; it makes shaping easier and less sticky.
- Onions: I use Yellow onion or Vidalia onion since they’re naturally sweet, and blend perfectly into the sauce, 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.
Prepare 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 veggies cool, then transfer them to a large mixing bowl with ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Knead with clean hands to combine, careful not to over-mix. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Remove the meatball mixture from the fridge and roll it into 1-inch meatballs.
Step 4: Heat oil in a preheated Dutch oven over medium heat. Arrange the first batch of uncooked meatballs in a single layer in the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes, turning frequently to brown on all sides.
Cooking Tip
Once seared, set the meatballs aside and cook the remaining meatballs in batches. They don’t need to cook all the way through since they’ll finish simmering in the sauce later.
Make the Sunday Sauce
Step 1: Pour off the leftover oil from the Dutch oven. Then, warm two tablespoons of olive oil 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 1-2 minutes.
Step 3: Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing the whole tomatoes into the pot with your hand. Then, stir in the tomato puree and season with salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Reduce to low heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
Prep Tip
Leave the Sunday gravy chunky or process it with an immersion blender for a smoother consistency. You can also transfer the sauce to a blender in batches.
Step 4: 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
- Refrigerate the meatball mixture. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling to help the meatballs hold their shape while cooking.
- Sear the meatballs. Heat the meatballs in the pan to develop a golden brown sear and extra flavor. Don’t worry about cooking them through since they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Drain excess oil. If there’s excess oil in the pot after searing the meatballs, discard it, but keep the browned bits at the bottom, as they will add flavor to the sauce when you deglaze the pan.
- Control the consistency of the sauce. If you prefer a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to process the sauce ingredients before adding the homemade meatballs.
- Maintain a low cooking temperature. Simmer the meatballs low and slow to develop the flavor and to prevent the heavy cream from scorching. This Dutch oven meatball recipe is a 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 this Dutch oven meatballs recipe, try one of these 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 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
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 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 kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- 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 veggies cool, then transfer them to a large mixing bowl with ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Knead with clean hands to combine, careful not to over-mix. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the meatball mixture from the fridge and roll it into 1-inch meatballs.
- Heat oil in a preheated Dutch oven over medium heat. Arrange the first batch of uncooked meatballs in a single layer in the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes, turning frequently to brown on all sides.Tip: Once seared, set the meatballs aside and cook the remaining meatballs in batches. They don’t need to cook all the way through since they’ll finish simmering in the sauce later.
- Pour off the leftover oil from the Dutch oven. Then, warm two tablespoons of olive oil 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 1-2 minutes.
- Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing the whole tomatoes into the pot with your hand. Then, stir in the tomato puree and season with salt, black pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Reduce to low heat and gently simmer for 10 minutes.Tip: Leave the Sunday gravy chunky or process it with an immersion blender for a smoother consistency. You can also transfer the sauce to a blender in batches.
- Stir in the heavy cream and carefully nestle the seared meatballs into the sauce. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours over low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Refrigerate the meatball mixture. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling to help the meatballs hold their shape while cooking.
- Sear the meatballs. Heat the meatballs in the pan to develop a golden brown sear and extra flavor. Don’t worry about cooking them through since they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Drain excess oil. If there’s excess oil in the pot after searing the meatballs, discard it, but keep the browned bits at the bottom, as they will add flavor to the sauce when you deglaze the pan.
- Control the consistency of the sauce. If you prefer a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender to process the sauce ingredients before adding the homemade meatballs.
- Maintain a low cooking temperature. Simmer the meatballs low and slow to develop the flavor and to prevent the heavy cream from scorching. This Dutch oven meatball recipe is a 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.