Cheese Stuffed Oven Baked Meatballs

These cheesy stuffed Oven Baked Meatballs are one of our favorite family-friendly dishes for fall. They’re absolutely delightful to cut into — hello, cheese pull! — and pack a ton of great flavor. You’ll love these over a bowl of creamy polenta or over your favorite pasta (our kids are a sucker for spaghetti and meatballs!). But really sometimes you can find us simply eating these straight out of the pan because they are that good..

*This post was sponsored by Kings Food Market. All opinions are my own. I only support and promote brands that I believe in and use in my own kitchen – I hope you’ll check them out! Thank you for supporting the brands that make Well Seasoned possible. 

Ingredient Notes

• Ground beef: We use 80/20 for meatballs, but you can certainly use 90/10 if you prefer.
• Eggs: These act as a binder to hold everything together.
• Traditional Italian breadcrumbs: Unseasoned — we add our own mix of seasoning! If all you’ve got is breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning, all good!
• Dried spices: oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, Kosher salt, and black pepper.

You’ll need both fresh cubed mozzarella cheese, as well as shredded mozzarella, and a container of your favorite marinara sauce. We love Rao’s! Yes, you can substitute with canned tomatoes or tomato sauce, but you’ll want to add a teaspoon or two of dried or fresh herbs (oregano, Italian seasoning, etc.), garlic, red pepper flakes, and/or extra virgin olive oil to get some flavor into the sauce.

Serve with grated Parmesan and fresh basil (or parsley!) for the perfect finishing touch!

As far as equipment, you’ll need a whisk, a large mixing bowl, a cookie scoop, and instead of a baking sheet, cook the oven baked meatballs in a large skillet. This is to hold the sauce in.

Prepare The Meatballs

To make things simple and keep the meatball prep to one large bowl, we recommend whisking the eggs together first, then placing the ground beef and seasonings on top. Use your hands to gently mix, being careful not to overwork the meat, but continuing on until all meatball ingredients are well mixed.

Grab a large cookie scoop, then divide into equal size portions, roughly 2oz each.

To form the meatballs, press the meat mixture down slightly, creating an indentation for a couple cubes of the fresh mozzarella. Use your hands to carefully mold the ground beef around the mozzarella, rolling them into uniform shaped meatballs. That’s it! You’re ready to pan fry them!

Start On A Stovetop, Finish In An Oven

We often call for broiling or baking meatballs — including our Thai turkey meatballs, Greek Turkey Meatballs and these Sheet Pan Chicken Meatballs with Goat Cheese — but sometimes, you really just want a golden brown, crispy exterior. That’s what we’re aiming for here.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, then add a little neutral oil (grapeseed, avocado, canola, vegetable oil, etc.). When very hot, add the meatballs. Brown for 4-5 minutes, then flip. Go ahead and pour the marinara sauce right on top. Sprinkle on some shredded mozz and grated Parmesan cheese, then pop the whole skillet into an oven preheated to 400F.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the meatballs are fully cooked through and tender, and the cheese (both inside and on top!) has melted.

Finish with an extra sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano, and of course lots of fresh basil leaves. What a meal!

How To Serve

You’ll find that these oven baked meatballs are a meal in and of themself, but if you want to round out the meal, we love serving these over polenta or pasta.

You could also throw them into a sliced Italian baguette to make a seriously delicious meatball sub. So good!

For vegetable side dishes, we recommend our simple Arugula Salad or Roasted Broccolini. Keep dinner simple!