Trader Joe’s Italian Style Meatballs Review

While meatballs aren’t really designed to be a main course, they’re great to eat with a variety of different foods. From spaghetti to sandwiches to even pizza, meatballs can be a great way to make an ordinary dish a little less ordinary.

And Trader Joe’s offers a pretty lovely variety of meatballs. We’ve tried their Party Size Mini Meatballs and their Turkey Meatballs. We’ve sampled the holiday-themed Cranberry Meatballs and even the vegetarian-friendly Meatless Meatballs. But we still haven’t tried the most basic version of these, the Trader Joe’s Italian Style Meatballs.

Well, that changes today, folks. Today we’re diving into this bag of meatballs to see what they’re all about.

First off, we should point out that there are several different ways to cook these. You can pop them into the microwave if you’re in a hurry, or you could heat them in a sauce on the stovetop. For this particular batch, we decided to use the oven cooking method. (If you want to see the full instructions for all three cooking methods, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

These are quite good. We were expecting a sort-of-meatloafy flavor, but that’s really not how we would describe these. While these are certainly meaty (they are made out of meat, after all), they have breadcrumbs mixed in to add a slightly wheaty flavor. On top of that, these are seasoned with salt, parmesan, dried onions and peppers, and an assortment of spices. It’s a grand flavor combination that really makes these great. In fact, these taste good enough that you could just eat them plain if you wanted to.

Of course, the seasoning also makes these a great match for pasta dishes and even sandwiches. Or, you could simply dip them in some BBQ sauce.

A serving size is two meatballs, which is probably alright considering these are designed to be a side to a greater meal. With that in mind, a double-meatball serving contains 240 calories (180 from fat) and 480 mg of sodium. While that doesn’t seem all that bad, keep in mind that you also have to add the calories and sodium from whatever you’re eating these with, and those numbers can start adding up pretty quickly.

The Trader Joe’s Italian Style Meatballs are meaty little treats that are flavorful enough to eat plain. Then again, the real fun comes with adding these to a pasta or mixing them with a sauce to create some wonderful flavor combinations.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these Trader Joe’s frozen meatballs, check out our package scans below.