Classic Homestyle Spaghetti & Meatballs
with Tomato Sauce & Parmesan
- Wheat
- Milk
Savory and satisfying, spaghetti and meatballs is a crowd-pleasing gold standard. Tender, garlicky beef meatballs infused with Parmesan cheese and Italian spices roast in the oven till browned on the outside and juicy on the inside. They’re tossed in a rich marinara sauce with al dente spaghetti and a final flourish of Parmesan (cause we’re not messing with this classic!).
Ingredients
½ cup
Panko Breadcrumbs
(Contains: Wheat)
1 unit
Onion
1 unit
Crushed Tomatoes
10 ounce
Ground Beef
1 tablespoon
Italian Seasoning
3 tablespoon
Parmesan Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
1 unit
Beef Stock Concentrate
6 ounce
Spaghetti
(Contains: Wheat)
1 teaspoon
Garlic Powder
Not included in your delivery
2 teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
¼ teaspoon (tsp)
Sugar
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
-
Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Wash and dry produce.
-
Halve, peel, and dice onion into ½-inch pieces; mince a few pieces until you have 2 TBSP (4 TBSP for 4 servings).
-
In a large bowl, combine beef*, minced onion, panko, stock concentrate, half the Parmesan, half the Italian Seasoning, 1 TBSP water (2 TBSP for 4 servings), salt (we used ½ tsp; 1 tsp for 4), and pepper. Form into 8-10 1-inch meatballs (16-20 meatballs for 4).
-
Place meatballs on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Roast on top rack until browned and cooked through, 14-16 minutes.
-
Once water is boiling, add spaghetti. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente, 9-11 minutes. Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water, then drain.
-
Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add diced onion; cook until browned and softened, 2-4 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, garlic powder, remaining Italian Seasoning, ¼ cup reserved pasta cooking water (ladle straight from the pot if pasta isn’t finished cooking yet), ¼ tsp sugar, salt, and pepper (for 4 servings, use ½ cup pasta cooking water and ½ tsp sugar). Cook until sauce has slightly thickened, 4-6 minutes more.
-
Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until pasta and meatballs are finished cooking.
-
Add drained spaghetti and cooked meatballs to pan with sauce; toss to coat. (For 4 servings, if your pan isn’t large enough, carefully pour everything back into the empty pasta pot.) TIP: If needed, stir in more reserved pasta cooking water a splash at a time until everything is thoroughly coated in sauce.
-
Taste and season with salt and pepper.
-
Divide pasta and meatballs between shallow bowls. Top with remaining Parmesan and serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The meatballs were widely praised as tender, flavorful, and the best part of the dish; the tomato sauce, however, was frequently described as bland, thin, or too onion-forward.
- Ease of prep: The recipe is straightforward and family-friendly, though forming meatballs and managing both the oven and stovetop adds more time than a quick weeknight cook might expect.
- Suggestions: Reduce the onion by half, add fresh garlic to both the sauce and meatballs, and consider a splash of balsamic vinegar or extra Italian seasoning to give the sauce more depth. Broiling the meatballs for a few extra minutes adds a satisfying crust 🎉.
- Leftovers: The generous portion size meant many households had enough for a second meal or lunch the next day, and it kept well.
- Sauce: Many reviewers wished for more sauce overall — the amount provided felt insufficient for the pasta, and adding a splash of reserved pasta water or extra crushed tomatoes helped stretch it.
Reviews from our home cooks
As written, the sauce was pretty bland. After I added more garlic, Italian seasoning and some red wine vinegar it was amazing. The meatballs were very good. I cooked them in my air fryer. Also served asparagus with the meal.
Based on my experience with another meal that had meatballs, I cooked the meatballs in a skillet (which is what another meal company's recipe directions said to do) and then removed them from the pan to prepare the sauce. Baking the meatballs in the oven created grease splattering in the oven that I am still having to clean up. The recipe was fine, but even though it was a small onion (and I love onion) it was a bit much. The sauce was more like a marinara.
I was pleasantly surprised by this meal--I've found meatballs don't always turn out good, being too dry and/or getting a little burned. But this turned out to be absolutely delicious--when I heat up my leftovers, I'll probably top it off with a little more marinara, cause there's never too much sauce!
My meat arrived leaking and discolored, so I did have to throw it out and replace it at the store, but overall the recipe was very good and incredibly delicious. I do think it could have stood to have some more parmesan cheese, seeing as one pack goes to the meatballs, and the other was not enough to spread across four servings.
No complaints! The spaghetti was flavorful with a great texture, and the meatballs were not just plain meat but had other flavor-enhancing ingredients!
Great flavor. Easy to make. So many meatballs for 2 people!
Excellent dish and everyone loved it. The meatballs were easy to make.
It needed more sauce for the spaghetti. I have made spaghetti in the past and really liked the sauce. This one was good but I didn't like it as much. The other sauce had a little more sugar to add just a hint of sweet to the sauce.
Good Italian dish. Tomato sauce is a little flat. I think marinara sauce would make it better.
I over cooked the meatballs slightly. But it was all very tasty. I was able to get 2 dinners and 2 lunches out of one meal.
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