I love beef and I love pesto, so combining the two, much like our pesto panna cotta (image below), was an inevitable happenstance!
Baked pesto meatballs make a great alternative flavour to your regular meatball pasta dish but one of my favourite ways of serving them is also as a canapé, at the end of a cocktail stick, with either a piece of cheese, cucumber or marinated/roasted tomato.
Here, it’s been baked in a simple tomato sauce, with some peppers (capsicum) & tomatoes. I love adding chargrilled peppers and roasted tomatoes for added depth.
You’ll find the recipe for homemade pesto here, it’s a 5 minute job, so, please do make it yourself.
For more Italian recipes, head on over to the Italian page, for favourites like:
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- Red Chilli Pesto
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- Pesto Risotto
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- Spaghetti alla Carbonara
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- Arrosto Misto (Italian Mixed Roast)
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- Affogato Italian Coffee and Gelato Dessert
Baked Pesto Meatballs (Perfect in sauce or as Canapé)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4–6 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Delicious Italian meatballs with a twist – these ones are zinged up with pesto!
Ingredients
The Meatballs
- 500g (1.1 lb) minced beef
- 100g (3.5 oz) pesto, preferably home made
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 80g (2.5 oz) white breadcrumbs, about 3 slices of bread
- 60g (2 oz) Parmesan cheese, grated
- small handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 1–2 Tbsp olive oil, depending on how fatty your meat is
The Sauce
- 400g (14 oz) can of chopped tomatoes
- 1 large onion, sliced
- half each, green and red capsicum, sliced, fresh or chargrilled
- 2 tomatoes, in rounds, or handful roasted
- 2 Tbsp sundried tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, if needed
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all the meatball ingredients (apart from the oil) in a large bowl.
- Make medium sized balls, you should get about 2 dozen.
- Heat the oil on medium high heat and brown the meatballs, turning them, for about 2 minutes each side. Do this in batches, no overcrowding as you want the meatballs to fry not stew.
- Place all the meatballs, in a single layer, in a large, oven proof dish and turn the oven on to 180˚C (350˚F).
- We’ll be using the same pan for the sauce. If there is much fat left, tip all but 1 tbsp of it out. Add the 1 tbsp of olive oil if not. Heat this on medium heat.
- Fry the onions for about 5 minutes until soft.
- Add everything else in and bring to a simmer. Check seasoning.
- Pour this sauce all over the meatballs and bake in the hot oven for 25-30 minutes, at which point the sauce will be bubbling at the edges.
- Serve with pasta, bread or rice.
- Some mozzarella will go very nicely if serving the Baked Pesto Meatballs with pasta or bread.
- Category: Main Course
- Cuisine: Italian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4-6
What a fabulous recipes! Never thought to add pesto to the actual meatballs – genius!
I’m glad you approve, many thanks!
Azlin, I love these! And I love your other pesto recipes too, you are so clever! Have subscribe to your blog, Chef!
Thank you Timothy!
I was on your pesto page, and had to come and look at this recipe, as I love meatballs! Well, I have to tell you that I made them last weekend for a party and everybody wanted the recipe. Thank you!
That makes my day, Marsha. Thanks for trying the recipe and letting me know!
Wow, this is simply amazing, never thought to make meatballs with pesto. I bet they taste amazing, thank you, I’ll have to give these a go!
Thank you, let me know how it goes!