Meatballs and spaghetti is an ever-popular meal around here. I love cooking meatballs in the air fryer! The air fryer shaved off some time, and the meatballs were super-crispy on the outside/ super juicy on the inside.
I served the meatballs with a very basic homemade tomato sauce and long fusilli.
Air Fryer Beef Meatballs (& Spaghetti)
Servings: 4
Calories: 428kcal
Equipment
- 1 air fryer
Ingredients
- 8 ounces uncooked spaghetti (I used long fusilli)
Meatballs:
- 12 ounces 96% lean ground beef
- ⅓ cup plain breadcrumbs
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoon skim milk
- 2 tablespoon liquid egg whites
- 2 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
Sauce:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves (finely minced)
- 1 28oz can whole tomatoes
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (or 1½ teaspoon dried basil)
Instructions
Cook the pasta
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.
Make the sauce
- While waiting for that pasta water to start boiling, you can heat the olive oil in a skillet or saucepan over medium heat.
- Cook the garlic for about 1 minute, until the garlic just begins to become fragrant.
- Add the whole tomatoes along with all the juice in the can, tomato paste and basil. Turn up the heat, put the lid on, and bring the tomatoes to a boil.
- Once the tomatoes boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and allow the sauce to simmer, lid on, while you prepare the meatballs and pasta.
- You don't need to supervise the sauce constantly, but return to the pan every so often to break up the whole tomatoes into small pieces with your spatula. As the tomatoes get softer and softer, it gets easier and easier to mash them up.
Cook the meatballs
- While the sauce is simmering and the pasta is cooking, stir all of the meatball ingredients together in a bowl.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400 °F as you work on forming the meatballs.
- Arrange the meatballs in a single layer in the air fryer basket (you may possibly need to work in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer)
- Turn the air fryer down to 380 °F and cook for about 12 to 14 minutes.
- Meatballs are done when a thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165 °F
- Alternatively, heat your oven to , arrange the meatballs on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Again, meatballs are done when a thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165 °F
- Stir the pasta and sauce together. Top with the meatballs.
