Beef · Slow cooker adaptation

A Simple Palate's Italian Meatballs (Slow Cooker)

A Simple Palate's family meatballs win on one quiet trick: a cup of ricotta worked into the mix, sat next to grated onion (her mum's way of keeping chunks out) and a handful of fresh basil and parsley. Equal parts pork and beef, baked, then dropped into simmering tomato sauce to finish tender.

R By Richard · Adapted from A Simple Palate · Published 23 June 2026
👁 1M source views ❤️ 22.2k source likes
⏱Prep 25 min
🍲Slow cook 4 hr (Low) / 2 hr (High)
🍽Serves 6
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A Simple Palate shares her family's Italian meatball recipe: equal parts pork mince and beef mince, homemade breadcrumbs, two eggs, two cloves of garlic, a small grated onion, fresh basil and parsley, freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, half a teaspoon each of salt and black pepper, and the family's secret ingredient, a cup of ricotta cheese for tenderness. She bakes the meatballs at 400°F for 18 to 20 minutes, then drops them into a pot of tomato sauce to simmer for 30 minutes. Adapted here so the simmer happens in the slow cooker on Low instead, which keeps the meatballs intact and lets them soak up the sauce without breaking apart.

Slow cooker notes: Source bakes the meatballs at 400°F (around 200°C) for 18 to 20 minutes, then simmers them in tomato sauce for 30 minutes in a shallow pan on the hob. Adapted to the slow cooker by keeping the oven bake (this firms the meatballs so they don't fall apart and adds a touch of colour, since slow cookers steam rather than brown) and moving the sauce simmer into the slow cooker on Low for 4 hours or High for 2 hours. Use a wide enough slow cooker so the meatballs sit in a single layer in the sauce, as the cook in the video stresses, to stop them piling up and breaking.

Ingredients

Meatballs
  • 450 gpork mince
  • 450 gbeef mince
  • 1 cuphomemade breadcrumbs
  • 2eggs
  • 2garlic cloves, minced
  • fresh basil, chopped
  • fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 cupricotta cheese
  • 1small onion, grated on the large holes of a box grater
  • 0.5 tspsalt
  • 0.5 tspblack pepper
  • 1 cupParmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
To finish
  • tomato pasta sauce
To serve
  • cooked pasta, cooked separately (add late)

Method

  1. Put the pork mince and beef mince into a large bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, eggs, minced garlic, chopped fresh basil and parsley, ricotta cheese, grated onion, salt, black pepper and the freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

    ~5 min

  2. Mix everything together by hand until just combined. A spoon will not pull the smaller ingredients through evenly. Disposable gloves work if you prefer.

    ~5 min

  3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the mixture with a large ice cream scoop, roll each portion into an even ball in the palm of your hand and space them out on the tray.

    ~10 min

  4. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 18 to 20 minutes, leaning towards 20 if your meatballs are on the bigger side.

    ~20 min

  5. Pour the tomato sauce into the slow cooker. Lower the baked meatballs in so they sit in a single layer in the sauce rather than piling on top of each other.

    ~5 min

  6. Cover and cook on Low for 4 hours or High for 2 hours, until the meatballs are tender and the sauce has taken on their flavour.

    ~240 min

  7. Serve in a shallow bowl with extra grated Parmigiano Reggiano on top. Pasta optional.

    ~5 min

Frequently asked

Can I skip the oven bake and put raw meatballs straight into the slow cooker?
You can, but they are more likely to break up in the sauce and there is no colour or crust on the outside. The oven bake firms them and gives a hint of browning that the slow cooker cannot do on its own.
Why ricotta in the meatballs?
The cook calls it her family's secret ingredient. It is a mild, creamy Italian cheese that adds tenderness and a juicy texture without weighing the meatball down the way too many eggs would.
Can I use dried herbs instead of fresh basil and parsley?
The cook is firm that dried herbs do not work here. Fresh basil and parsley give the bright flavour the recipe leans on. If you only have dried, use sparingly and accept that the result will taste flatter.
Do I have to grate the onion?
Grating is the trick the cook learned from her mum. It melts into the mix so you do not bite into chunks of raw onion in the finished meatball. Finely minced will work but grated is better.
What sauce should I use?
The video does not give a sauce recipe, just 'a pot of sauce'. A simple marinara, your favourite homemade tomato sauce, or a good jarred tomato pasta sauce all work. Use enough to mostly cover the meatballs in the slow cooker.
Extraction notes (transparency): Fresh basil and fresh parsley mentioned but quantities not stated. Parmigiano Reggiano described as 'probably more than a cup, I'll just put about that much in' so recorded as approximately 1 cup with a note. Tomato sauce called out only as 'a pot of sauce' with no recipe given, so it is treated as a prepared/jarred or homemade marinara of the cook's choosing and quantity not pinned. Default servings (6) inferred from 2 lb total meat (typical 4 to 5 meatballs per serving from this amount); not stated. Slow cooker time not in source and adapted from generic slow-cooker-meatballs-in-sauce knowledge.