Meatball Casserole
If you are looking for a comforting new family dinner, this homemade Meatball Casserole is the perfect choice. It features juicy, flavorful meatballs baked until golden, then smothered in rich tomato sauce and melted cheese. This low carb keto meatball casserole is always a massive hit with both kids and adults.
This recipe is inspired by the classic Italian meatball Parmesan subs I loved during college. To make it healthy and low-carb, I skipped the bread and turned it into a comforting, cheesy casserole with meatballs. It delivers all the nostalgic flavors of a classic meatball sub without the carbs.
Love this? Try my Keto Chicken Parmesan next! It is breaded with parmesan cheese, making it lighter than classic chicken parm but just as delicious.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- Family-Friendly Comfort Food: A dish the whole family will enjoy.
- Low Carb & Keto: Packed with protein and completely keto-friendly.
- Meal Prep Ready: An easy make-ahead freezer meal perfect for busy weeknights.
- Hidden Veggies: A great way to sneak vegetables into dinner—kids won’t even notice!
- Sub Without the Bread: Tastes exactly like a meatball Parmesan sub.
Ingredients
- Ground Meat – I typically use ground turkey, but ground beef, ground pork, or ground chicken work as well.
- Ground Sausage – I use sweet Italian sausage, but hot Italian sausage is fine or a combination of the two. If using lean ground meat, the sausage helps keep the meatballs moist and flavorful.
- Egg – The egg is the binder in this, in addition to the grated parmesan cheese.
- Shredded Zucchini – You can’t taste it, and it gives a lot of moisture to the meatballs. Note: I do not squeeze the water from the zucchini for this recipe.
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese – You can also use a blend of Italian cheese. Use freshly shredded mozzarella for the best melting texture.
- Keto Marinara Sauce – I like to make my own, but any pasta sauce or tomato sauce without added sugar is fine.
- Spices – I prefer to use dried onion, garlic, and basil in these. You can use Italian seasoning in place of the basil if you prefer the flavor of that.
- Salt & Pepper
How to Make a Meatball Casserole
Step One: Mix the Meatballs
Put all the ingredients for the meatballs in a large mixing bowl and mix. You can do this by hand or with a rubber spatula. Don’t overmix the meatball mixture or the meatballs can become dense.
Step Two: Scoop and Bake
Next, scoop the meatballs. A large cookie scoop makes this very easy. You should end up with 24 meatballs. Bake in a baking dish coated with cooking spray until they are almost completely cooked. I shoot for 150-155°F on my meat thermometer.
💡 Pro Tip: If there is excess grease in the casserole dish after baking, drain it completely before moving on to adding the sauce and cheese.
Step Three: Sauce, Cheese, and Broil
Top with sauce and sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top, and finish baking. For the best golden brown cheese on top, broil the low carb meatball casserole for 2-3 minutes, watching it carefully.
Top Prep Tip💡
You can make the Italian meatballs ahead of time, cook them until fully cooked, and then freeze the cooked meatballs in a freezer bag. Just place the frozen meatballs in the casserole dish, bake until thawed, and then top with the sauce and cheese. This easy meal prep idea is always a perfect meal on busy weeknights.
Storage & Reheating
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in the oven at 350°F until hot, or microwave individual portions.
Variations
- Fresh Herbs – If you have fresh basil, feel free to mix some into the ground meat mixture, add some to the marinara, or sprinkle on top after baking.
- Spice Swaps – Swap the dried minced onion and garlic for onion powder and garlic powder, or sub in Italian seasoning.
- More Dinner Ideas – This Sausage Parmigiana is also a great choice if you need more dinner recipes! Or for a vegetarian version, sub in cauliflower and try my Cauliflower Parmesan.
Common Questions
We enjoy it with a side salad, vegetables, or any of the main low carb pasta options out there, such as palm noodles and zoodles.
Our family’s favorite ways to serve this are on top of zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash. For any non-keto eaters, you can serve with garlic bread or a side of al dente pasta.
Alternatively, you can serve with a side of roasted broccoli or green beans or a green salad.
I use a large cookie scoop to simplify the process and make uniformly sized meatballs. Since there is no need to get up to your elbows in raw meat, this is a great task to get the kids involved in. Mine are pros at scooping low carb meatballs by now. Make sure to also check out the video below.
The shredded zucchini helps keep the meatballs moist and tender, and my kids never notice it’s there. If you’d rather use something else, chopped spinach works well too.
Absolutely! This easy meatball recipe also freezes really well! Go ahead and make a double batch and then next time you want an easy Meatball Casserole just thaw, dump into the baking dish, and cover with sauce and cheese. Meatball Parmesan in a jiffy!
I love to always have a bag of low carb homemade meatballs in the freezer for nights that I don’t want to cook.
Yes. Assemble the cooked meatballs and sauce in the dish, cover, and refrigerate up to 24 hours before baking. Add cheese just before putting it in the oven to reheat.
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Video
Meatball Casserole Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Meatball Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/3 cup grated or shredded parmesan
- 1 medium shredded zucchini about 1 cup
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp dried minced onion
- 2 tsp dried minced garlic
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp salt
Casserole Ingredients
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 8 oz shredded cheese (I used a two cheese pizza blend of mozzarella and provolone)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray
- Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix thoroughly. Make about 24 meatballs and put them in the casserole dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through. Carefully drain the cooking liquid from the casserole dish.
- Top with the sauce and cheese. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
- Optional: I broiled for 3-4 minutes at the end to toast the cheese. Watch it carefully if you put it under the broiler. The cheese can burn easily.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally Published September 23, 2016. Revised and Republished September 8, 2025.
This is wonderful!! Thank you so much for the recipe. I used the leftovers to make an Italian Egg Bake Breakfast (S)!!
Sooo Good.
I spray a 9 x 13, Crack about 8 eggs into it, add 8 of your delicious meatballs, cover them with fresh spinach, S/P, Garlic powder, top with No Sugar Marinara, cover that with some Parmesan and Mozzarella,
350 until not jiggly. Freezes well for individual portions. My new grab and go breakfast. 🙂
I’m curious to try this variation. You don’t mention it, but did you beat the eggs after you cracked them into the pan??
Any recommendations on how to cook these in a crockpot?
I’ve never done meatballs in a crock pot. Sorry. I would look for another recipe and just use those cooking directions with my ingredients.
If you google meatballs in crockpot I would follow hat. Basic ingredients are the same. The only difference would be the lack of liquid with these so I would go with whatever low setting and be home to check maybe an hour earlier.
When do you add the zucchini to the casserole?
Into the meat mixture before forming into meatballs.
What size zucchini? What would be he approximate shredded amount? Thank you!
Just a medium zucchini. I’m not sure the exact amount of shredded but it won’t really matter in this recipe. Just don’t use one of those five pounds monsters some people get from their gardens 😉
I have this in the oven right now and it smells so good! The recipe made more meatballs than we can eat tonight, could the rest be freezed and made later?
The meatballs should freeze fine. They normally freeze well 🙂
I just made these meatballs and they are sooo good! I used spicy italian chicken sausage and used a no sugar added marinara sauce. Definitely will be in our meal rotation going forward. Thanks!
I’m glad you liked them!
Hello! Do you think this casserole would do well made-ahead, refrigerated, and baked the next day? Thank you! 🙂
Yes. 🙂
Just made this for my family and it is a huge hit!!! I did not have sausage and I am having an aversion issue with poultry (ever since my second pregnancy…if it tastes too chickeny or turkey-y I can’t take it!) so I used ground pork and ground beef. Next time I’ll change it up and try the turkey and sausage. Only other thing is that my lovely 3 yr old, who is trying to assert herself at every turn, saw the “green things” in the meatballs. Next time I’ll peel the zucchini! 🙂
This is a great way to make meatballs! I am so excited that my kids are eating zucchini!
Thanks for sharing.
I just made this. It’s in the oven now and looks really good. I did get more than 24 meatballs though. I guess I made them smaller. Can’t wait to try them.
Did you ever use spaghetti sauce for this recipe, or you prefer tomato sauce?
I do use spaghetti sauce. I never know what to call it. It seems it is called different things regionally. I like Classico Roasted Garlic since it doesn’t have added sugar.
I am so excited about this recipe! My husband requested it after seeing I shared it on my FB page! The meatballs are in the oven!
What did you serve this with/how did you eat it? Since we can’t put it on bread or noodles?
I just ate it with a fork and knife. I served green beans and salad on the side. My kids did have pasta with it.
Any idea how much shredded zuch equals “1 zucchini”? Sizes vary 😉 Excited to give this a try!
This was a medium zucchini. So about 1 cup shredded. A little more or a little less won’t matter in this recipe 🙂
Looks delicious! I like to make a meatball parm, but it’s a bit different than yours. I do like to use italian sausage + ground beef for the meat balls. Even without adding spices, the flavor is just amazing.