Easy Meatball Casserole

This meatball casserole recipe comes together quickly, uses everyday ingredients, and is comforting on a cold day!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword meatball casserole recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings

Calories 539kcal

Preheat the oven to 375F and move the rack to the top third of the oven.
Cook the noodles for a minute or two less than the package instructions suggest, then drain them and transfer to a 9x13 casserole dish.
Meanwhile, add the olive oil and onion to a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook for 4-5 minutes.
Stir in the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds.
Add in the marinara sauce and meatballs and heat through. Important: if using frozen meatballs, it's important to cook them until thawed (depending on the size/type of meatballs, this may take 8-10+ minutes). Simmer over medium heat (or lower if it's bubbling too much) and stir occasionally. Break a meatball in half to ensure that it's fully thawed.
Pour the skillet contents into the casserole dish and add half the cheese and toss together (I also add some salt & pepper at this point), then spread it out evenly.
Top the casserole with the remaining cheese and bake, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes or until it's hot and bubbly. Optional: broil it for a few minutes (watch it so it doesn't burn) to brown the cheese.

For convenience sake, you can use pre-made frozen meatballs. Use as many/few as you like. 24 oz. of them made quite a lot of casserole, so you could even use half the amount if you're only feeding 4 people, for example. Thawed meatballs or fresh homemade meatballs (my recipe is linked) will work too (any kind of meatballs will be fine).
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information.