Slow Cooker Italian Meatballs

Few things are more delicious and comforting than meatballs simmered low and slow in tomato sauce with hints of Parmesan, parsley, and sausage studded throughout. True Italian meatballs normally combine pork, beef, and veal to create rich deep flavors. These lightened-up slow cooker meatballs use lighter turkey sausage to deepen the flavor without all the added calories and fat. They are cooked in a rich tomato sauce in the slow cooker to create delicious and moist meatballs. Try them over pasta, spaghetti squash, or stuffed in crusty rolls to make meatball sandwiches.

Key Ingredients

• Ground Beef: If you want to keep these meatballs on the lighter side, then make sure to use a lean ground beef that's at least 90% lean. If you aren't worried about that, any ground beef will work. You can also swap in ground turkey, ground chicken, or ground pork.
• Ground Italian Sausage: This is the secret ingredient in this recipe, it adds so much flavor. You could swap in extra ground beef, but you will need to add some extra spices since you won't get all the flavor in the sausage.
• Crushed and diced tomatoes: These are for making the sauce. San Marzano tomatoes will give you the best flavor, but any canned tomatoes will work. Using both the crushed and diced provides a nice texture of the sauce. You could also use some whole tomatoes, just break them up with a wooden spoon.
• Garlic and herbs: In order to get a rich flavor in the meatballs and in the sauce, you want to add lots of garlic, parsley, and dried herbs. If you love garlic, you can add extra. Italian seasoning is a great way to add lots of flavor with just one seasoning mix or you can add your own combination of dried basil, parsley, and oregano.
• Parmesan cheese: Parmesan cheese serves a dual purpose in these meatballs as both a flavor agent and binder. Parmesan, romano, pecorino, or any combination of these classic Italian cheeses will work.