Oven-Baked Swedish Meatballs in Cream Sauce

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Soft, tender, melt in the mouth beef and pork meatballs, served in a creamy and velvety sauce over buttery, fluffy mashed potatoes; Swedish meatballs are the ultimate comfort food. As the weather cools, and the days shorten, this is exactly what we crave in our house – something incredibly flavourful and comforting which warms us up, from the inside out! A warm, Swedish, hug in a bowl on a cold night!

Magnus Nilsson, The Nordic Cook Book

This is a very slightly adapted recipe from the internationally acclaimed Swedish Michelin star chef, Magnus Nilsson. It is from his incredible anthology ‘The Nordic Cook Book’ in which he shares a collection of over 700 recipes, stories and beautiful photographs from the whole Nordic region.

The meatballs are wonderfully soft, and although this makes them so delicious to eat, it can also makes them a little difficult to work with. So, rather than using your hands to make the meatballs, (the mixture is far too soft) use an ice cream scoop to create a nice round shape. They are then baked in the oven, rather than fried, before finishing cooking them in the cream sauce. In truth, this ends up being much quicker and easier than most methods and you end up with incredible meatballs!

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How to make Oven-Baked Swedish Meatballs in Cream Sauce

Collect all your ingredients together:

For the Meatballs:

• finely chopped parsley
• brown bread
• minced beef
• minced pork or turkey
• Dijon mustard or Swedish or German mustard
• egg
• double/heavy cream
• milk
• fine salt
• freshly ground salt and black pepper
• onion, peeled and finely chopped
• olive oil

For the Cream Sauce:

• unsalted butter
• plain/all-purpose flour
• good quality beef stock
• double/heavy cream
• freshly ground salt and black pepper

Now make these fabulous melt in the mouth meatballs:

First make the meatballs –

1. Finely chop the parsley. I do this in a food processor. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
2. Next blitz the bread in the food processor, until you have breadcrumbs. Add to the parsley.
3. Now add the beef, pork, mustard, egg, cream, milk and seasoning and mix thoroughly. I do this with my hands. Set aside, for a minimum of 10 minutes, to allow time for the bread to soak up some liquid.
4. Next, peel and roughly chop the onion and blitz in the food processor until finely chopped.
5. Heat the oil over a moderate heat and add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes or until softened and lightly caramelised.
6. Add to the meatball mixture and mix thoroughly.
7. Use an ice cream scoop to make your meatballs and place directly into a cast iron pan, which you can use in the oven and on the hob. Do not overcrowd the pan – use a separate baking dish if necessary. My pan was over crowded so I moved a few to a baking tray.
8. Bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.

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Make the sauce –

1. After the meatballs have been cooking for 10 minutes, take out of the oven, remove the meatballs from the pan and set aside.
2. They should have left lots of sticky bits in the bottom of the pans – these are really full of flavour so make sure you scrape up any sticky bits from the extra pan into the cast iron pan to flavour the sauce.
3. Melt the butter in the cast iron pan over a moderate heat and add the flour. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring, with a wooden spoon for 2 – 3 minutes.
4. Add the stock all at once and whisk thoroughly with a balloon whisk to ensure there are no lumps. Cook for a further 5 minutes on a low heat, stirring regularly, until you can no longer taste the flour.
5. Add the cream, stir to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning, as necessary.
6. Bring the sauce to a simmer and add the meatballs back to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes to heat the meatballs through and to allow the flavours to infuse.
7. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve over creamy, buttery, mashed potatoes and some green vegetables on the side.

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Made this recipe?

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