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Oh my gosh, you guys. We spent the entire weekend packing up the house and who would’ve thought we’d have SO MUCH STUFF?! Cabinets do a really good job at hiding junk.
The kitchen alone probably had 12 dedicated boxes. I hope we don’t have to move again after this. It’s so much work, lol
We’re in such a tough position right now too because we aren’t moving until Saturday so between now and then, there are still things we need to keep out (like pots/pans/knives) and toiletries and we can’t pack those away. I’m so antsy and want to pack it ALL but realistically, you just can’t yet cause you have to live day to day life.
I can’t wait to close on our house on Thursday. It will be officially ours and I can start unpacking and setting everything up!
Let’s talk about this beauty right here. This creamy Swedish meatball pasta bake. Pasta, heavy cream, cheese, and hearty Swedish meatballs.
I am all about a good pasta casserole but a Swedish meatball pasta casserole? Sign me up.
This is pure comfort food and I do hope I get to make it to Sweden some day to try some authentic Swedish meatballs. I don’t think the IKEA ones will cut it; although, they are pretty darn good ;)
This is a pretty heavy dish especially with all the cream, cheese, and pasta, but if you’ve got a hankering for some heavy comfort food that will pretty much cause you to be in a food coma afterwards, this is the dish for you!
Grab a fork and dive on in!
Creamy Swedish Meatball Pasta Bake
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 1 pound (454 g) 90/10 ground beef
- ½ cup (30 g) panko breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- ½ onion, finely chopped
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the rest of the dish
- 1 cup (237 ml) beef broth
- 1 pint (473 ml) heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 ½ cups (150 g) rigatoni pasta, or similar
- 1 cup (132 g) freshly grated gruyere cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Fresh chopped parsley, for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 °F (191 °C) and lightly spray a 9×13-inch oven-safe casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatball. Using your hands, incorporate and mix the ingredients together, careful to not overwork the meat.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out meat and roll into balls. Place onto a plate or piece of parchment paper.
- In a large skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once oil is hot, add meatballs to the skillet.
- While the meatballs are cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta until al dente make sure it isn’t cooked all the way through as you will be cooking this in the oven later. Drain pasta when done.
- Brown meatballs on all four sides then place on a plate and set aside. You don’t have to cook them all the way through as they will finish cooking in the oven.
- Using the same skillet you cooked the meatballs in, add beef broth, heavy cream, and Worcestershire sauce to the skillet and scrape the brown bits at the bottom of the skillet. Let sauce simmer until *slightly* thickened, about 10 minutes then remove from heat. It’ll still be pretty liquidy, don’t worry. Season with salt and pepper.
- To assemble casserole: add pasta to the casserole dish then evenly distribute the meatballs throughout, gently pushing some of it into the middle of the dish (so it sits nestled between pasta layers). Pour sauce all over the top then sprinkle cheese on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until pasta and meatballs are cooked through and cheese is melted.
Congrats on your New Home.
This sounds yummy and there are 10 of us going to Sweden soon. I’m having a dinner party for all 10 of us. I should double the recipe? I’d like to make it ahead of time, either morning of ,or night before and store in the fridge. How much longer do you think I should bake? Add another 20-30 minutes? At 375? Do you think this will work ok?
Yes, I’d double the recipe and if you split it into two baking dishes, you likely won’t need to add more time. It’s only if you baked it in one giant casserole dish that you’d need to add more time.
The meatball bake Sounds wonderful. Do I cook the pasta before it goes into the oven?
Hi, this is outlined in step #5 in the instructions.
I am thinking of making this for a food exchange, can this be frozen? If so, any suggestions on how I could do it?
I haven’t frozen this before so I don’t have any tips :(
Made this…..SOOOOOO GOOD! We had to force ourselves to refrain from overeating. Leftovers great too,☺️ Thank you,
Wonderful news! I’m so glad you enjoyed :)
This is one mouth watering dinner recipe! Yum!
My boys love meatballs and pasta!
I hate packing and moving! but it would be worth it for a big bowl of this!
My husband is on a low fat diet, which is great…for him. The rest of us are craving some heartier meals. If I subbed skim evaporated milk for the heavy cream, do you think the dish would turn out. Obviously it wouldn’t be as rich and creamy, but do you think it would ruin the outcome? Thanks in advance. And good luck with the move. After our last move I decided if we had to move again, we would just leave it all and start from scratch! It’s such a pain, but well worth it once you are settled. Congrats on the new house.
Thanks so much! I’m not sure if it would work but I honestly can’t see it not working – you should totally give it a shot! At least the flavors would still be there with the meatballs and other stuff! :)
Wait until you unpack! It’s been a year since we moved into a house and we just unpacked the final box a few weeks ago!
This recipe looks so delish!! I have a bag of Frozen Swedish Meatballs from IKEA (I didn’t even know they sold them!) Do you think I can use them in this? Good luck with the house!
True!! I think they would work in these!
What a perfect dinner recipe! Love this!!!