Pizza Meatball Marinara Bake

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Meatballs baked in a juicy marinara sauce and covered in ooey-gooey cheese. Top with spicy pepperoni and fresh herbs.

I love meatball recipes because they are so simple to put together and are great for meal prepping. Sometimes I like to make double or triple batches to put away in the freezer and free up my schedule a little bit. Even though I am big on cooking from scratch and whole foods, I don't always feel like cooking every single night.

I love this recipe in particular because its also kid friendly. Kids love pizza, including my own kids. They love to pull on the cheese and make strings with it-its their favorite part. My daughter can enjoy this recipe because it's gluten free but it still tastes like pizza.

A game changer for making meatballs is to cook them in sauce. I find that when I bake meatballs by themselves, they dry out more. And no one likes chewing on a dry meatball. When you cook meatballs in sauce, it makes them so much more juicy and flavorful.

What You Will Need

½ medium white onion diced

1½ lbs ground beef

½ tbsp garlic powder

½ tbsp dried oregano

½ tbsp dried basil

2 tsp salt

24 oz marinara sauce

4 slices provolone cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded

1 dozen pepperoni

How to Make Pizza Meatball Marinara Bake

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

On medium heat, sauté the onion until translucent.

Meanwhile, add the ground beef and spices to a mixing bowl and combine.

Once the onion is cooked, roll the ground beef into balls and place onto the skillet. I like to roll the meatballs between my hands to get them more round. I recommend making them about golf ball size or smaller because they will cook more evenly.

Bake the meatballs for 30 minutes covered.

Remove from the oven. Cover the meatballs in marinara sauce. Then evenly space out the provolone cheese on top followed by the mozzarella cheese. Top with pepperoni.

Bake uncovered for another 10-15 minutes until the cheese has fully melted. You can set the oven to broil for five minutes to brown the cheese.

Remove from the oven and serve with your favorite pasta! We like to use gluten free spaghetti, but a few other gluten free options are baked spaghetti squash and cooked zucchini noodles.

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