Baked Meatballs With Potatoes

This is my Mom’s recipe for baked meatballs with potatoes. This one-pan meal is inspired by the traditional Turkish dish called Izmir köfte. Izmir köfte is one of my favorite meals because of the simplicity: meatballs, potatoes, peppers, and sauce are all baked together in one dish, making it the easiest weekday meal. To make things even more seamless, you can prep the meatballs the night before and assemble the dish the following day. Our recipe is not traditional by any means, as my mom uses her Bulgarian recipe for the meatballs and we use our Italian sugo for the tomato sauce, but feel free to make this anyway you like with the ingredients you have on hand. This pairs beautifully with a green salad, tzatziki, or my incredible cold cucumber soup.

If you would like to see a more traditional take on this delicious dish, feel free to click the link here as it will direct you to another beautiful blog that I found Izmir köfte – Baked Turkish meatballs with vegetables

Baked Meatballs With Potatoes

themodernnonna

This one-pan meal is inspired by the traditional Turkish dish called Izmir köfte. Izmir köfte is one of my favorite meals because of the simplicity: meatballs, potatoes, peppers, and sauce are all baked together in one dish, making it the easiest weekday meal.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 1 hr

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• 11-inch round baking dish (any similar-size baking dish will work)

Ingredients

  

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The Meatballs:

• 650 grams ground beef (or any ground meat of choice)
• 1 large egg
• 1 medium yellow onion, grated
• 1 medium potato, peeled, grated, and squeezed of excess moisture
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• drizzle of olive oil

Additional Ingredients:

• 4 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick circles
• salt to taste
• 1 cup marinara sauce (we use our homemade sugo) see notes below
• 5 mini bell peppers
• drizzle of olive oil

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 400F (200C).
• In a big bowl, add the ground meat, egg, grated onion, grated potato, salt, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. Using clean hands, mix really well until all the ingredients are incorporated.
• Using a large ice cream scoop or tablespoon measure, create 14 equal-sized meatballs from the meat mixture. Roll each one and then, using your palm, flatten it slightly. Set aside.
• Note: you can cover the meatball mixture and let it sit in the fridge overnight and form the meatballs the following day. OR you can form the meatballs, cover them and assemble the rest of the recipe the following day. Alternatively, you don't have to wait at all if you want to bake and enjoy them the same day.
• Sprinkle all of the potato slices with a little bit of salt.
• Pour 3/4 cup of the tomato sauce into the bottom of a baking dish (see notes below) and distribute the sauce evenly.
• Arrange the meatballs and potatoes into the baking dish, creating a spiral pattern of meatball, potato, meatball, etc. The meatballs and potatoes should be placed upright, so the food is stacked and balanced on its thinnest side. Please watch my video tutorial for visual instructions.
• Once the potatoes and meatballs have been arranged, add the mini bell peppers anywhere you like. You can add as many as you wish, as long as there's space to nestle them in.
• Pour the remaining 1/4 cup sauce onto the top of the meatballs, potatoes, and peppers and drizzle on a touch of olive oil on top.
• We wet and scrunch up parchment paper and cover the top of the dish. Feel free to use foil instead.
• Bake for about 45 minutes, uncover, and bake for another 15 minutes. The bake time will depend on the oven (ours is super slow/old and takes longer) so always keep an eye on the dish to make sure it does not over or underbake.
• We like to put the dish on BROIL (top element only) for the last 5 minutes for extra color, but feel free to leave this step out.
• Let cool for 15 minutes and enjoy!

Notes

Note: You can use a round, square, or rectangular baking dish. The baking dish you use won’t make a difference as long as all the ingredients fit snugly inside. We used a round 11-inch stainless steel baking dish.

If you want to make our Sugo (tomato sauce recipe) please look at this recipe here Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce (Sugo) and make it the same way, omitting the veal. You can also use any store-bought marinara sauce you like, such as Rao’s. 

Feel free to use any ground meat of choice. We have made this with ground chicken, turkey, pork, and beef. We like pork, chicken, and beef the most. 

Bake time will depend on the oven. Ours is very slow and old so keep an eye on it. 

We like to salt the peeled potato slices separately; salt is always to taste. You can use any potato you like; we use yellow potatoes here. Make sure they are sliced in similar sizes.

You can use green cubanelle peppers, mini peppers, jalapenos, or any of choice. If you don’t like peppers you can leave them out. 

This dish pairs perfectly with my Easiest Most Delicious Tzatziki recipe on the blog, any of my Easy Healthy & Creamy Bulgarian Salads , or our Cold Cucumber Soup 

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!