Swedish Meatball Pasta
Everyone’s favorite Swedish meatballs with pasta noodles tossed right into that cream sauce goodness. So heavenly, so good.
Is there anything better than Swedish meatballs?
The answer to that is yes. And that is Swedish meatballs with perfectly cooked elbow macaroni stirred into that heavenly cream sauce gravy.
I know. It’s mind-blowingly-fantastic.
Now if elbow macaroni is not your thing, you can use ANY pasta to your liking – rotini, cavatelli, ditalini, penne – it is ALL GOOD. But I do recommend using a tube-type pasta for the sauce to sneak in.
And if you do have any leftovers (so sorry but I can’t make promises on this!), they taste even better on day 2 and 3!
Swedish Meatball Pasta
Everyone’s favorite Swedish meatballs with pasta noodles tossed right into that cream sauce goodness. So heavenly, so good.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces elbow macaroni
- ¾ pound ground beef
- ¾ pound ground pork
- ⅓ cup Panko
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups beef stock
- ⅓ cup sour cream
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- In a large bowl, combine ground beef, ground pork, Panko, egg yolks, green onions, parsley, allspice and nutmeg; season with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 1-to-1-1/4-inch meatballs, forming about 24 meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Melt butter in the skillet. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in beef stock and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes.
- Stir in meatballs and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through and thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in pasta and sour cream until heated through, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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This recipe has potential! My family enjoyed it, but next time I’ll make a couple tweaks. I didn’t want to save 1/4 pounds of meat so I used full pounds. I increased the other ingredients in the meatball mixture, but next time I’ll increase it more as mine were a tad bland. I made the sauce as written in the recipe and it was very thin. It tasted good though! Next time I may try using a little more flour. I’m eating some leftovers right now and it’s even better next day!
I made this recipe because I had all the ingredients except I used frozen meatballs which I had in my freezer. Turned out pretty good. I think this will make the dinner rotation. My kids loved it! Thanks for the recipe. Only other change I saluted onions in the butter before adding the flour and put some garlic powder in the sauce. Yum
how can i make this healthier? thanks
You could sub the sour cream with Greek yogurt! You could also use a leaner meat like ground turkey or chicken.
This was SO delicious! My young boys and husband all loved it as well, which is a great feat! It’s hard to fine a recipe that everyone says they like. I was a little nervous to make this because of some of the reviews commenting that the sauce was lackluster. However, I made it as written except I used salted butter instead of unsalted, as that’s all I had on hand. The sauce was SO flavorful. All the brown bits from the meatballs and the flavors inside the meatballs created a beautifully tasty sauce. JUST right! Can’t wait to make this again.
Does this freeze well?
My husband loved this but I’m on the fence!
The meatballs are very flavorful but I felt the sauce was lacking. It tasted like a lighter version of the sauce made for beef stroganoff. If I make this again, I’d like to add something to thicken it and add a bit for flavor.. Maybe some parmesan, garlic…
I would definitely add garlic, dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, and top with fresh shredded (I think) Gouda and/or mozzarella cheese. I’ve made this only a few times by combining a couple of different recipes. Baked it in the oven at the end… 350 for 30 minutes, or so. But I have to Google it each time to remember what I did, but it’s fabulous! Good luck!
Looks delicious! Planning to make today. Does this freeze well?
This recipe is AMAZING. I just finished the leftovers and felt compelled to leave a review. I used whole grain elbows, turkey instead of beef in the meatballs, and added a dash of cayenne to the sauce. It was incredible! My husband and I both adored this recipe.
So, so good! Had no sour cream used plain yogurt- Aldo used ground turkey with the pork.. delicious!
Made this tonite with crusty sourdough bread, was a total hit. Sauce is very flavorful can’t wait to try leftovers too
I made this and it’s delicious! I used Spaghetti noodles instead of elbow macaroni. Thank you!
Any idea if I could use spaghetti squash?
Really loved the flavor of the meatballs. The sauce was a little underwhelming in flavor. I did use better than bullion beef instead of beef broth so maybe that would make a difference next time. I really enjoyed it and will try it again another time.
I don’t eat beef or pork so I made it with ground turkey and chicken stock, it was really good!
It turned out well but was a little watery. I followed the recipe using 3 cups of beef stock though. Next time I would use less stock. I put a little extra sour cream & my husband loved it.
Did you add the beef stock all at once? I slowly add it so I can control how thick the sauce is. Also..save the pasta water! Great thickener.
More flour. Increase to 1/3 cup.
Excellent
This is such a flavorful meal. It is now a staple in our home. Not a single alteration. LOVE it!
This is divine! I love a true Swedish meatball recipe. I didn’t have pork to do 3/4 of such ground meats, but had venison only. Even with only ground venison and adding coriander this was spot on!
My picky 7, 5 and 2 year olds had seconds! Thank you!
Has anyone tried this with frozen meatballs and just doing the sauce and pasta?
Yes. I always use this sauce recipe with the frozen meatballs from IKEA. I bake them in the oven in the skillet that I then use to make the sauce so I get the benefit of any crispy bits. I add some Worcestershire sauce to the sauce. I do find as written it is a little thin if I use the full 3 cups of broth.
This was damn delicious! I used white onion instead of green onions because I thought I had green onions but didn’t. I didn’t have allspice so I used 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 1/8 tsp cloves and I think it worked out well.
My only negative comment was that it took way longer than the 20 minutes prep and 20 minutes cook time. Putting the meat mixture together was quick but cooking the meatballs took longer than 20 minutes. That said now that I have made this once I will make it again knowing that it does take longer that it said in the recipe. As I was typing my review I might just make it without the macaroni and serve it over egg noodles as the sauce was very good.