These pepperoni meatballs have all your favorite pizza flavors in meatball form! They’re tender, moist and taste amazing.
We love Italian food at our house…especially spaghetti and meatballs. I usually make instant pot spaghetti during the week, but love to make homemade meatballs on the weekends when I have more time. These pepperoni meatballs are a fun variation that taste amazing!
This recipe was born out of desperation. I was having a meatball craving and didn’t have any ground pork in my freezer…only ground beef. I love to make my homemade meatballs with half ground beef/half ground pork, so I decided to branch out (mostly because pepperoni was the only other meat on hand.)
The good news is that they turned out awesome! It’s like eating pizza meatballs. What’s not to love?! They taste amazing with pasta and marinara, but would also taste delicious on a meatball slider or sub. These pepperoni meatballs are the best of both worlds!
What you need:
- Package of pepperoni
- Mushrooms
- Onion
- Ground beef
- Eggs
- Milk
- Panko breadcrumbs
- Garlic
- Paprika
How to make pepperoni meatballs
Blend the pepperoni and veggies
Pulse the pepperoni in a food processor until it is ground completely. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Next add the mushrooms, onion and garlic to the food processor. Pulse until ground, then add the mixture to the bowl.
Mix in remaining ingredients
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl with the pepperoni and use your hands to combine. Form the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs, then place on a foil-lined baking sheet.
Bake meatballs in oven
Bake at 450°F for 10-12 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and browned on the bottoms. Serve with pasta, marinara and parmesan cheese!
Tip: Make sure to remove the little silica gel package from the pepperoni bag before adding the slices to the food processor. I learned the hard way and accidentally blended it in with the pepperoni!
More delicious meatball recipes:
- Crockpot BBQ Meatballs
- Porcupine Meatballs
- Swedish Meatballs
- Healthy Turkey Meatballs
- Crockpot Hawaiian Meatballs
Pepperoni Meatball Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 ounce package sliced pepperoni
- 8 ounces mushrooms
- 1/4 of a medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs or quick oats
- 1.5 teaspoons and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.
- Add the pepperoni to a food processor.* Pulse thoroughly until it is ground completely. Add to a large bowl.
- Add the mushrooms, onion, and garlic to the food processor and pulse until ground. Pour into the bowl.
- Add in the ground beef, eggs, milk, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Use your hands to combine the mixture (it works better than a spoon and makes the meatballs more tender).
- Form the meatballs into balls a little smaller than a golf ball. (Or any size you want, as long as they are uniform.)
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until browned on the bottoms.
- Serve with pasta and marinara!
Notes
Nutrition
Photography and recipe contributed by Karen of The Food Charlatan for I Heart Naptime.
My kids love meatballs so I decided to try something new and they loved them!
So delicious! Adds so much flavor! Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Perfect for pasta night! These are right up my husband’s alley. Yum!
This is the first time I’ve heard about “pepperoni Meatballs” and it looks like a great idea. I love pepperoni flavored pizza, but I just can’t have them all the time because pizza is not friendly to my diet plan. Pizza contains so much more than my recommended daily calorie intake, but the pepperoni alone won’t do a lot of damage. I’ll surely include this in my next week diet plan! Thanks!
These look SO DARN GOOD! And what an efficient way to use up pepperoni and make do with what you have! I will definitely be making this for my family, ASAP! : )
This is such a great idea! I bet these would be super good on top of a pizza!