This is the kind of comfort food dish that you make on the weekend.
Think Swedish meatballs meets a casserole and that’s what we’ve got going on here today. Nifty, right? I tend to prefer casseroles in the winter time. Maybe it’s because they tend to be heavier and ideal for cold nights. Which means if you’re counting calories then save this recipe for a day when calories don’t count (like the weekend or on vacation 😉 ).
As a heads up, this recipe takes a bit of time to make, which is the real reason why I suggest making this on a weekend. It’s not difficult to make, but there a lot of steps. It took me way longer than I thought it would.
When I made this, it reminded me that I don’t like making meatballs. I find them kind of a pain to make. Does anyone else feel that way? The meatballs in these pictures are a little bigger than what the recipe calls for. I didn’t look at the package of beef that my husband picked up because I assumed it was the amount that I needed. My bad. The meatballs still came out great though.
My husband would have liked more pasta but I think that would ruin the integrity of this dish. I think that the ratio of carbs to sauce/gravy is key to a good casserole and it’s spot on here. Dry casseroles do not make for good eats.
While I did enjoy this meal, it’s not really something that I crave or gravitate towards. Give me a chicken rice soup or zucchini ravioli and I’m a happy camper. My husband ate all of the leftovers by eating it for several days in a row as lunch, so kudos to him for taking one for the team because this recipe made a lot of food.
Swedish Meatball Pasta Bake Recipe
(Makes about 6 servings)
Note: This recipe requires 30 minutes of chilling time.
Ingredients for the Meatballs:
- 1 and 1/4 cups plain panko bread crumbs
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2/3 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 pound ground beef (I used 85/15.)
- 1 pound ground pork
- 3 tablespoons oil
Ingredients for the Pasta:
- 2 cups shell pasta
Ingredients for the Sauce:
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups beef broth (I used low sodium, equivalent to a 32 ounce box.)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce * (See Note below.)
- 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon salt * (See Note below.)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
*Note: My husband likes this recipe as is. However, I prefer less salt and Worcestershire flavor and would reduce these amounts in half. Therefore I recommend that you start with less salt and Worcestershire, taste the sauce, and add more to your liking if needed.
Directions for the Meatballs:
- Add the panko bread crumbs to a large bowl and set aside.
- In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add the finely chopped onion, salt, pepper, allspice, and nutmeg and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir often.
- Add the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to low/medium, and add the milk. Stir everything together and bring it to a simmer.
- Once the onion mixture has come to a simmer, pour it from the pan into the bowl of panko bread crumbs and stir everything together. The mixture will be very thick. Set this bowl aside to cool.
- In a separate extra large bowl, add the eggs and beat them.
- Then add the ground beef, ground pork, and cooled onion mixture. Mix everything together. (It’s gross, but it’s easiest and quickest to do using your hands.)
- Form about 30 balls and then chill them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Once the meatballs are done chilling, in a large skillet over medium heat, heat up the oil.
- Add the meatballs to the skillet in batches and cook them until they are browned on all sides, about 15 minutes. Batches made it so the pan wasn’t over crowded which made flipping them and seeing when they were done easier.
- Transfer the meatballs to a dish and set them aside.
Directions for the Pasta:
- Cook the pasta al dente according to the directions on the box, drain it and add it to a 9 x 13 oven safe baking dish.
Directions for the Sauce and Assembly:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. (This is not part of the sauce steps but you’ll want the oven preheated by the time you are done with these steps.)
- Place the meatballs into the baking dish, nestling them into the pasta.
- In a large skillet on medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add the flour, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes.
- Stir in the beef broth, water, Worcestershire, salt and pepper and bring it to a simmer. Stir often.
- Reduce the heat to low/medium, and add the parsley and heavy cream. Stir everything together constantly and cook it until it thickens, about 10 minutes.
- Carefully pour the sauce over the meatballs and pasta.
- Bake the Swedish meatballs, pasta, and sauce in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
Slightly adapted from: The Beach House Kitchen
Did not have allspice and used instead Mixed Spice. Did turn out tasting great and quite different. Kids and my husband loved it.
This came out completely wrong…….waaaaaaay too much flour in the sauce. It was like pouring pancake batter over my meatballs, completely ruined my dinner and my night.
Really? I think you missed something! I’m Swedish and this is exactly the way Mom made!
I’m Swedish too…born and raised there. I’ve never ever had meatballs this way! But it still sounds good, but I wouldn’t call it Swedish by any stretch of the imagination.
Unfortunately this did not taste anywhere near how Swedish meatballs have been made my whole life. Not enough Worcestershire flavor at all and too flour-y tasting.
Yes…. This wasn’t good. Nothing like swedish meatballs. Poorly seasoned, lacking flavor.
This is our family’s favorite recipe! I stumbled across this on Pinterest a few years ago and we make this for special occasions. I’ll be making it tomorrow for our extended family ahead of my son’s high school graduation (by his request)! I follow the recipe exactly as written and it turns out perfectly every time. The flavor of the meatballs is 💯!
That’s awesome! Thank you so much for stopping by!
I’m glad I tasted this recipe as I cooked it because as written, it’s awful. Whoever authored this recipe has never had swedish meatballs, or at least any good ones. The spice proportions were off. The whole thing was bland… From allspice to salt and pepper the whole thing wasn’t good. Way too much flour for the sauce. Only a tablespoon of Worcestershire? No no no. I ended up adding some soy sauce to the sauce because it was so bland and tasted like nothing but flour, and yeah I did cook it long enough. I will never make this again. A waste of time and ingredients.
I made this today for our dinner, my mother in law and our neighbor who just had surgery. It made enough for all three places. I followed the recipe to a T and everyone loved it. Definitely a keeper.
Awesome! So glad to hear that! 🙂
I just used Costco frozen meatballs and this turned out amazing! I also did only 1 tsp of salt in the sauce and it still had plenty of flavor. I loved it!
Jasmine, I appreciate you offering an alternative… a little semi homemade is a great option!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
What is it with all the haters?? This was one of the best recipes I’ve tried. I changed up a couple of things though. For the sauce, I worried that 1 tbs would be too much so I only used 1 tsp and it was plenty, even for a saltaholic like me.
I also added a tsp of Dijon mustard as this has been an ingredient in other Swedish meatballs recipes I’ve tried.
Overall, it was amazing. The meatballs were tender and flavorful, the sauce was creamy and adding the pasta in made everything come together perfectly!
For those who said it was too floury, not sure how much you used but 1/4 cup plus 3 tbs was JUST enough to slightly thicken the sauce. Not too runny, not too thick.
I agree that this is a time-consuming recipe but I have leftovers for a few days so THANK YOU!! 🙂
Thanks so much, Sarah!! 🙂 I appreciate you stopping by!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
My whole family loved this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except I used frozen meatballs. I used half beef and half vegetarian for my daughter in a divided pan it was perfect.
What great alternatives! Thanks so much for stopping by and giving great options 🙂
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Okay. I read all the reviews and I have a few things to say.
1) I cook A LOT and recipes don’t normally intimidate me but this recipe is intense! In the future, I will only make this on very special occasions. And yields a TON of dishes.
2) Salt. Seriously, start with like a tsp and go up from there. I added too much and it was borderline ruined.
3) This is extremely flavorful, 30 meatballs was way too many for our dish so I only put 1/2 the amount in and froze the rest. If I had put them all in, the noodle to meatball ratio would have been way off.
4) With the amount of meat and sauce, I would almost do 2.5 or 3 cups or noddles.
Overall very delicious but it definitely needs tweaked.
Thanks so much, Mariah! I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
These comments are wild lmao if you’ve never made a roux before just say that. The flour to butter ratio was perfect, maybe elaborate on adding your broth in slowly while continuing to stir for the northerners? Unclear what the problem is there, my sauce was perfectly thick. Can also sub the half cup water for pasta water. I did end up adding about a tablespoon beef bouillon for color and flavor and a little onion powder to the sauce. But this was a huge hit and will be in the rotation in our house
I guess this is a love or hate recipe… to each their own. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
This was good. I bought premade frozen meatballs but made the sauce. He safe was fairly say. Family loved it. I will make it again.
Yay! Many say that using frozen meatballs is a great short, which is a wonderful option. I’m glad to hear your family loves it 🙂
Tried this this week and I really liked it! It was a nice hearty meal for the rainy autumn day. It’s a nice pretty simple weeknight meal, but that perception is probably due in large part to me cutting the recipe in half. Making a full portion would probably take much longer (especially making and frying so many meatballs)
I’m just cooking for one so I split the recipe in half and ended up with 4 dinners — ate one, put two portions in the fridge, and squirreled one portion away in the freezer.
The meatball recipe was very good in my opinion. I upped the seasoning because knowing myself, I usually prefer some extra seasoning especially with ground meat, but the meatballs have a great flavor and texture! I made larger meatballs so it would be less of them to make and fry.
It’s a simple gravy so I recommend tasting it and playing with it to get it to suit your tastes. I will say I started with equal parts flour and butter for my roux and just added a bit of flour until it was the color and consistency that looked right to me, but I don’t know if the end ratio was the same as the recipe– I think it was close though. I ended up adding some extra black pepper and some garlic and onion powder. I topped the plated dinner with some crushed red pepper and recommend a salad on the side with a tangy dressing 🙂 My grandma used to make swedish meatballs all the time — but cooking wasn’t really her thing so they weren’t anyone’s favorite lol… But I really liked this and it reminded me of her — thanks for the recipe!
Awh! Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving a lovely review. 🙂
This is amazing! I did half chicken and half beef broth due to personal preference and adding a sprinkling of nutmeylg to the sauce. Soooo wonderful. Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks so much Angela! I appreciate you stopping by!
We loved this recipe the first time we had it. Too much criticism in some of these comments. 🤦🏻♀️ I certainly did not think the sauce had too much flour in it. And the meatballs were delicious!!
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Can you bake the meatballs?
I just made it and baked them. Would have taken way too long to do them in batches in a skillet. They came out fine. I did 400 degrees for 17 ish minutes
I’m making this today! I don’t get the harsh comments. Maybe those people can’t cook. Your recipe looks spot on and I look forward to it. I will taste as I go and offer suggestions if I make any adjustments. Thank you for sharing your recipe