French Onion Meatballs

Marvelous Munch
by Marvelous Munch
4 people
30 min

One of our favorite classic soups to enjoy each winter is a Traditional French Onion Soup. Craving something warm and cozy? You’ve come to the right place. We decided to turn our winter favorite into a classic pasta dish with meatballs and sauce. The meatballs are so juicy and paired with this French onion sauce, that I would like to say is more of a gravy. This is not the age old debate of sauce verse gravy, honestly, this is more of a beautiful onion gravy. Check out the recipe below and try it for yourself!

As we mentioned above,  Traditional French Onion Soup gives us a warm cozy feeling. We wanted this feeling but in a heartier meal. We initially thought of making the soup into a sauce because of how much we love the flavor. Next was tackling how to make it hearty. Meatballs immediately came to mind. Our ultimate comfort food meal is our Chicken Parmesan Meatball Sub and that’s when we knew; MEATBALLS! The sauce reminds me of snuggling up in a blanket or sitting into a warm bubbly bath. The flavors of the onions become sweet while still providing you with just the perfect amount of zing to make your mouth water. Everything you want in one dish!

Tools to create these meatballs

Deep Sauce Pan or  Dutch Oven: To make your French Onion Meatballs you will need a deep sauce pan or our preferred dutch oven since everything besides the pasta cooks in this dish.  Cookie Scoop: This is optional, but we like using a cookie scoop to make out meatballs so we get the same size each time.

From our kitchen to yours, cheers!

Recipe details
  • 4  people
  • Prep time: 10 Minutes Cook time: 20 Minutes Total time: 30 min
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Ingredients
French Onion Meatballs
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • ¼ red onion chopped finely
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 2 tbsp worcestershire
  • 2 thyme sprigs (thyme leaves removed)
  • 1 cube beef bullion crushed up
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
Sauce
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ red onion sliced in long thin strips
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 tbsp salt
  • 3 thyme sprigs
  • 2 tbsp marsala wine
  • 4 tbsp worcestershire
  • 1 ½ cups beef broth
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • ¾ tbsp flour mixed with water to thicken sauce, if you like thinner, feel free to opt out
Pasta
  • 1 lb linguine
  • gruyere cheese grated or shredded
Instructions

First slice and chop your onions and garlic. Combine all meatball ingredients together in a bowl and create meatballs, this typically makes 9-10 meatballs depending on size.
In a large sauce pan or dutch oven over medium heat add the butter and olive oil. Once melted add your meatballs and begin to sear.
Bring a pot of water to a boil with salt. Add pasta and cook till al dente.
Sear your meatballs on each side, once seared add the onions and garlic from the sauce ingredients list as well as the thyme and salt. Mix carefully, put a lid on the pan and let cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the onions are caramelized.
Slowly pour in the marsala wine, worcestershire, beef broth, and sprinkle the pepper and stir. Bring this to a simmer and lower the heat. Let cook with the lid off for 5 minutes
If you prefer a thicker sauce like us, in a small bowl combine flour and water and slowly stir into the sauce to thicken. Do a small amount at first to ensure you don't over thicken your sauce.
Once the sauce is ready, add pasta to the bowl, pour in your sauce and meatballs and shred some gruyere cheese on top and enjoy!
Marvelous Munch
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Comments
  • Cheryl Cheryl on Jan 26, 2021

    Questions, is it tsp for the amount of thyme? I imagine you have to crush the boullion cube so you can mix with other ingredients.

    • See 1 previous
    • Marvelous Munch Marvelous Munch on Jan 26, 2021

      Hey Cheryl,

      Yes sorry about that. Its 2 thyme sprigs and just remove the leaves and yes crush up the bouillon cube. I updated the recipe.

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