Pork, Apple, and Cheddar Meatballs with Parsley Buttered Egg Noodles

I love meatballs! We have so many different kinds that we make and enjoy. They are usually pretty kid friendly and they are also a great make ahead meal. I almost always make up my meatballs during nap time, place them on a baking sheet, cover it with foil, and place it in the fridge until I’m ready to make dinner. It makes dinner time so much more peaceful!

These pork, apple and cheddar meatballs are one of my favorites, I think because they are so different from most other meatballs but also so flavorful! While it might seem labor intensive to grate the apple and the onion, I find it actually goes pretty quickly on a box grater, and it makes the pieces nice and small to get absorbed into the meatballs.

Funny story about this recipe from a few months ago when I was making it. I was so excited because we had just gotten a bunch of apples from the orchard and it seemed like a great fall meal to make and enjoy some of our apples. While I was making it earlier in the day, it must not have been during nap time because I remember it being chaotic, and I got distracted. When we were eating them I could not figure out why they seemed so tasteless and disappointing. Well, when I went to put my recipe away later that night I realized I had completely forgotten the salt! Apparently the salt is extremely important in this recipe. They were terrible without it! When I made them again recently we were all laughing about it once again; even my kids remembered how bland they were without the salt compared to how they usually taste.

Enjoy! (And don’t forget the salt!)

Pork, Apple, Cheddar Meatballs with Egg Noodles

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Course Main Course

Ingredients

  

Meatballs

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
• 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 small tart apple peeled and grated
• 1/2 small yellow onion grated
• 3 T fresh parsley chopped
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t pepper

Noodles

• 6 cups dry egg noodles
• 4 T butter
• 1 1/2 T fresh parsley

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees for baking. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease with butter.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients together. Shape into meatballs and place on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 30 minutes until cooked through.
• Meanwhile, in a pot of boiling, salted water, cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain. Return to pot and toss with the 3 T. of butter and 1 T. fresh parsley.
• Serve meatballs over parsley buttered noodles.

Notes

Make ahead options: This is a great make ahead meal! I almost always make the meatballs early in the day, then just place them on the buttered baking sheet, cover them with foil, and place it in the fridge until I’m ready to make dinner.  It makes dinner time so much more peaceful! 

What to serve with it:  This dish has plenty of flavor so we usually have a simple steamed vegetable with it.