These beef and ricotta meatballs are delicious and flavorful over plain pasta with olive oil or tomato sauce. They have a light texture and are almost sweet due to the ricotta cheese.
White Spaghetti and Meatballs (no red sauce)
So our delightful youngsters have an aversion to tomato sauce. Isn’t that so fun? Other kids are chowing down on pizza, but there’s my daughter just eating the crusts and poking at the cheesy bit with a look of sheer disgust.
I wish I could say I don’t know where she gets it, but I was just as bad as a child.
Of course she loves pasta though. We’ve instituted a Friday pasta-night for the kids to look forward to. And naturally, that means at some point we needed to do spaghetti and meatballs.
Particularly important as my son just isn’t all that impressed by pasta. But he does love meatballs. Aren’t kids just the greatest sometimes?
So I’ve been working on meatball recipes that work without red sauce. This one does great. For the kids, instead of trying to come up with a more complicated white sauce for spaghetti and meatballs, I just drizzle some olive oil on the pasta and serve it alongside the ricotta meatballs. Sometimes I break up the meatballs a bit for the kids to get the flavors mixed in with the spaghetti. But their preference is pasta in olive oil with some parmesan – ricotta meatballs separate.
For the adults, I also drizzle with olive oil, but I also chop up some herbs and a bit of raw garlic and toss the pasta with them. Maybe squeeze on some lemon juice. Obviously, parmesan cheese on standby. Turns out great. The acidity of the lemon works great with the meatballs, which are rich and slightly sweet.
Tomatoes: When the Fruit Falls Far from the Vine
My children do not like tomatoes. I do not know how this is the case, as this was my favorite thing to eat as a child. And as an adult. If I were on an island, I would probably still die happy if the only food available was tomatoes there. As long as they were good tomatoes, of course.
As mentioned above, I made this white spaghetti and meatballs as a work-around so we could still enjoy the classic spaghetti and meatballs as a family. So I needed a meatball that would be flavorful enough that it carried the dish. These meatballs do just that.
But there is no reason you have to keep the pasta tomato-free, if your children are not similarly afflicted with tomato hatred. Obviously, I would prefer to have this pasta with tomatoes. Everything is better with tomatoes. Except maybe ice cream. But even then, I bet you could make it work if it were a ricotta-based ice cream that wasn’t too sweet. Great, now I’m salivating.
Here are two easy ways you can tomato up this dish.
Obvious Tomato Idea #1
Heat up some tomato sauce. I usually make our tomato sauce because I am really, really picky about tomato sauce. (I did say my daughter probably gets the sauce-aversion from me.)
I just take canned San Marzano tomatoes and blend them up with some raw garlic and olive oil and a touch of salt. Then I simmer it for 10-20 minutes while I cook the pasta. The color will change from bright red to an orangey-hue, and the flavor will get sweeter.
I’ll write a post about my red sauce because it’s shockingly easy, and most premade tomato sauce has a surprising amount of sugar added in there (because it’s cheaper than using good tomatoes). Truly, I think this one is just much simpler, and better tasting, than what you’d get from a classic jar of tomato sauce. And you just need a blender and a can opener. Regarding time – you’re already cooking pasta, so it really doesn’t add much time at all.
Obvious Tomato Idea #2
Place some cherry tomatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil them for about 5 minutes, until they start to break down a bit and get a bit of char on them. Place a bowl of these (complete with any liquid that came out) on the table, and anyone who wants can toss some of these onto the pasta, and top with the ricotta meatballs. See picture below.
This method also has the benefit that you can just do this to your kids’ pasta – exposing them to tomato. They can eat around the tomato, and it’s fine with me if mine do (although I encourage them to take at least one bite). I don’t want to force the issue too hard. But they will get a bit of a the flavor, and repeated exposure to a flavor is a proven way to get kids to like food.
Are Meatballs Healthy?
Another obvious question – why would I bother to go through the exercise of making my own meatballs? Are these ricotta meatballs even healthy?
Yes! Especially compared with commercial alternatives.
These meatballs rely on ricotta cheese to keep them tender and moist, instead of oils, sugars, or highly processed starches you might find in commercial versions. Ricotta cheese is on the lighter end of the cheese spectrum, with lower fat but lots of calcium and high quality protein.
The ground beef is rich in heme iron (the easily absorbed kind), vitamin B12, and (obviously) protein. Also, when you make your own meatballs, you’re likely using higher-quality meat than what you’d find in commercial brands. I usually get grass-fed beef when it’s available — it blends in with the herbs and spices. (This is coming from someone who doesn’t enjoy grass-fed steak.) You don’t need a super fatty beef for this recipe.
The onions, garlic, oregano, and parsley add flavor but also support immune health and inflammation regulation. Garlic contains allicin, a sulfur compound that supports heart health and immune function. Red onions contain the antioxidant quercetin, which fights inflammation and may help respiratory health. Fresh oregano and parsley fight inflammation and add some vitamin C and K.
Aversion to Touching Raw Meat
I was always reluctant to make meatballs growing up. A primary reason I had held off was that the idea of hand-rolling meatballs kind of freaked me out when I was younger. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to eat the meatballs cooked if I’d been elbows deep in the raw meatball mixture. And I didn’t want to ruin meatballs for myself.
Of course, now I realize I could just use gloves. Or, even easier, a silicone spatula spoon (this type) to mix and a cookie dough scoop to create little meatballs (this one).
I use my silicone spatula spoon or a large spoon to combine the meatball mixture, and then I use my cookie scoop to plop meatballs straight into the pre-heated pan. It’s very easy. Then I rinse everything off and plop it straight into the dishwasher. Easy cleanup.
Now, on to the recipe!
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Ricotta Meatballs with Herbs
These beef and ricotta meatballs are light but rich and very flavorful. The onions and ricotta give them a bit of a sweet flavor. They’re great tossed in pasta with just olive oil, or on top of pasta with red sauce.
- Total Time: 30 min
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
1 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
1 red onion, finely diced
8 garlic cloves, crushed or finely diced
3/4 cup ricotta cheese (ideally full fat)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tbsp fresh oregano
1 tbsp fresh parsley
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 lb ground beef (I usually use 15 / 85)
2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
1. Make meatball mixture.
Combine the following ingredients well in a mixing bowl using a spatula spoon or large spoon. Or your hands, if you’re cool with that.
- 1 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 red onion, finely diced
- 8 garlic cloves, crushed or finely diced
- 3/4 cup ricotta cheese (ideally full fat)
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 lb ground beef (I usually use 15 / 85)
2. Preheat pan.
I usually use a cast iron skillet, but you could use any large frying pan (ideally about 12″ given the recipe size). I preheat it for a solid 2-3 minutes, then I spray it down well with olive oil. You really don’t want the meatballs to stick.
Preheating not necessary with nonstick. You don’t want those to get too hot.
3. Brown the meatballs.
Once preheated, begin scooping the meatballs into the pan. I use a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop for this purpose. If you don’t have one, you could use 2 large spoons to achieve something similar – aim for each meatball to be about 3 tablespoons of mixture.
Let the meatballs cook over medium high heat for 4-5 minutes, until they are well-browned on one side. Then, gently – they are quite delicate at this stage, tip them over to another side and let them brown for another 4-5 minutes.
4. Add the chicken broth, cover, and let them cook for another 10 min or so.
Once they have browned on two sides, no need to flip them again. Just leave them down on the second side (which is now browned). Then add the 2 cups of chicken broth. Bring it to a boil.
Then cover loosely. With my cast iron, I’ll either use a frying pan lid that fits, or put a large (clean) frying pan on top of it. I leave a little area for some steam to vent. Reduce the heat, and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes. The chicken broth should be mostly gone by this point – it’s okay for some liquid (maybe 1/4 cup) to remain. I usually temp the meatballs at the end to make sure they’re finished. I turn off the heat when they’re at least 165F internally. But it’s okay if you go past that – I often get them into the 180s. With all the ricotta and breadcrumbs, you’ll be fine – they won’t get hard. I strongly prefer to err on the side of overcooking with meatballs.
If you’re making pasta, I usually put it on as soon as the lid goes onto the meatballs.
5. Enjoy!
I eat these over pasta with olive oil and a little salt. I break up the meatballs a bit to ensure to get a bit of meatball with every bite of pasta. Alternatively, I will add a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of parsley and chives to the pasta and then mix in the meatballs.
Of course, you could always heat up some red sauce to toss the pasta in, and then serve the meatballs on top.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Category: Dinner
- Method: stovetop
