Meatball Parmesan Casserole Recipe + Life Lately (Including But Not Limited to: a Global Pandemic)
Well we’ve been in Denver for a little more than two months and we are loving it. Ya know, despite a global. pandemic. It was so crazy, within 2 weeks of moving here the world and the United States were hit with COVID-19 and everything shut down. People wearing masks in grocery stores. Toilet paper flying off the shelves. Tons of people losing their jobs. Tons of others switching to working fully remote. So many people sick or losing their lives. Healthcare workers on the front line giving their all to care for the rest of us. All flights and trips and fun outings and concerts and celebrations and weddings and graduations and schools and social gatherings…. cancelled. It’s been a wild time to say the least.
This is such an unprecedented time in our lives and having just moved to an entirely new city, you would think it was the worst. But actually, the Lord has been so good to us and gifted us with such peace knowing that we are exactly where we need to be. We LOVE Denver. We are so happy here. We found a church that we love and have spent (minimal) but quality time with our family - whom we were so excited to be closer to, which was a huge reason for the move in the first place.
Andrew and I both have moved to working fully remote. For Andrew, seemingly nothing changed. He’s always worked from home so not much has changed. I, however, had just started my new job and in less than 2 weeks while I was still in training, we all went fully remote. I am loving working from home. So so much! It’s a strange dichotomy to be loving working fully remote but still so sad and heartbroken for the circumstances impacting our world that have brought me to this place of working from home.
Nevertheless, we are still hopeful and loving our routine. I have now worked more time fully remote from home than in the office. And the pandemic seems to drag on and on. It’s starting to get old and we miss getting to go out and see the people we love. We would love to get to actually visit in person with the people at our new church. Or go out to a cocktail bar. Or get to explore this fun new city we’ve moved to. But for now, it’s safer to be at home and we are sticking to that and trusting the Lord and His timing for it all.
Anyways… while we’ve been at home I’ve been cooking a lot more than usual. I made a Blueberry Breakfast Cake that I will definitely share on the blog. But today’s post is to share the Meatball Parmesan Casserole that I’ve made basically 4 times since I first saw the recipe a couple weeks ago. This recipe is almost entirely from Liz Joy from @purejoyhome with a few of my adaptations and/or commentary. As soon as I read it I knew I had to try it. I don’t even love cooking that much, but the recipe is so easy - it uses most ingredients that you already have in your pantry and/or fridge. For someone who doesn’t like grocery shopping, I love that! So here’s the recipe that she posted originally and that I’ve adapted just slightly:
Friends, these are my new pots and pans from @caraway_home and I. Am. Obsessed. Check them out for great cookware that is non-toxic and beautiful! Also, if you haven’t, go watch the movie Dark Waters. It’s soooo good and will make you re-think the cookware you’re currently using.
Sauce:
Optional: you can use a pre-made jar of sauce from the store OR you can make your own!
To make your own:
3 28-ounce and of tomatoes - either diced, peeled, crushed, sauce, etc. Use whatever you have in your pantry!
Half of one large onion - I personally like more onion than not so I will sometimes use a whole onion if it’s not huge.
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh basil to add at the end - totally optional but will add a lot of great authentic flavor.
Meatballs:
2 lbs ground beef
1 1/2 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, or use regular and add 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
***For all of you who do not have breadcrumbs on hand… Never fear! I didn't used to either. I finally bought a box of Panko breadcrumbs the other day, but I’ve used literally two slices of sandwich bread to make homemade breadcrumbs before.
Homemade breadcrumbs: just put 2 slices of sandwich bread in a pre-heated oven at about 350-375 degrees and watch closely so they don’t burn. It’ll take about 10-15 minutes for the bread to crisp up and then you can literally crumble it into your meatball mixture.
Listen, no one promised we were gonna be gourmet over here, okay? :)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons salt + a couple turns of freshly ground black pepper
Secret ingredient!: Go to your sauce and add a full ladle of the sauce (about 1/3 cup) to the meatball mixture.
Casserole:
1 box of pasta (rigatoni, penne, etc.)
Mozzarella cheese - fresh is best, but you can totally use shredded. No judgement over here!
Freshly grated pecorino - honestly, I never add this… but it’s here if ya have it and want to use it!
Fresh basil - again optional
Sauce Steps:
Heat up about 1/4 cup of olive oil in a sauce pan.
Add your diced onion and sauté until translucent.
Drain out any water/juice from the cans of your sauce into the sink, and then add them to the pot.
Using a hand blender (totally optional), mix all of the tomatoes together until you get a consistency you like.
Add a teaspoon of salt - or more to taste
Let the sauce come to a boil and then reduce the heat and cover on simmer while you’re working on everything else.
Meatballs Steps:
Add your ground beef to a bowl and add your other ingredients: 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, salt + pepper. Mix this up with your hands.
Go to your sauce pot and add a full ladle of your sauce to the meatball mixture and mix that all in with your hands.
Roll into balls and place in a pre-heated over of 375 degrees. I like making the meatballs pretty big so that they are about one or two (for those who are really hungry!) per serving, but it’s totally up to you.
Bake your meatballs until brown and cooked through - about 20-25 minutes. Leave your oven on at this point but reduce heat to 325.
Pasta Steps:
While your meatballs are in the oven, cook your pasta until right before al dente. This helps them not get super mushy from being overcooked - since this will be a casserole.
Casserole Steps:
**Kitchen cleaning: While waiting for your meatballs, now is the time to clean up your kitchen and all those dishes! I love this step - I love to clean, does that make me weird?!
Once your meatballs are done, you will start mixing up your casserole. Drain the pasta when it’s ready and put it into a casserole dish. Add your sauce so that it covers all of your noodles.
Add your meatballs to the casserole dish - arrange them so that one person gets one meatball when serving. You may have extra meatballs that you can eat as an appetizer now, or freeze them for later. We never have extras because #appetizers! Haha!
Top your casserole with enough cheese to make a layer. About a cup of shredded mozzarella. Sprinkle some pecorino if you have it. Add some fresh basil.
Add casserole to your oven and cook for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!
My finished product! Now if only we could go back to Italy…