Make these spooky-fun and scary-good Meatball Eyeballs for a Halloween party food everyone is going to love. Featuring your favorite ground meat and olives baked in a zesty marinara sauce, these ghoulishly creepy treats are almost as fun to look at as they are to eat! Try these out for a Halloween appetizer that’ll have everyone raving (and screaming!).

Meatball Eyeball Recipe

Ingredients you will need:

1 lb ground beef, chicken, or turkey (we used chicken)
¼ Parmesan cheese
¼ cup pesto
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
Fresh basil leaves
¼ cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
3 cups of marinara
Black and green olives for eyeballs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop 1/4 cup fresh parsley.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/4 cup parsley, 1/4 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup pesto and the 1 lb. of ground meat.

Mix ingredients thoroughly.

Add fresh basil leaves and red pepper flakes to 3 cups marinara sauce. Stir.

Cover the bottom of a baking pan with the marinara.

Using your hands, roll 1 lb ground meat into meatballs.

Using your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each meatball and place an olive in the center, forming an eyeball shape. Place olive side up in the marinara-coated pan.

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve and enjoy these frighteningly good Halloween snacks!

Print Recipe

Meatball Eyeballs

Make these spooky-fun and scary-good Meatball Eyeballs for a Halloween party food everyone is going to love.

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef chicken, or turkey (we used chicken)
¼ Parmesan cheese
¼ cup pesto
¼ cup fresh chopped parsley
Fresh basil leaves
¼ cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
Red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
3 cups of marinara
Black and green olives for eyeballs

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/4 cup parsley, 1/4 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and 1/4 cup pesto and the 1 lb. of ground meat.
Mix ingredients thoroughly.
Add fresh basil leaves and red pepper flakes to 3 cups marinara sauce. Stir.
Cover the bottom of a baking pan with the marinara.
Using your hands, roll 1 lb ground meat into meatballs.
Using your thumb, make an indentation in the center of each meatball and place an olive in the center, forming an eyeball shape. Place olive side up in the marinara-coated pan.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

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Meatball Eyeballs Instructional Video Recipe Transcript

Start Video Transcript

Hey everybody, Jess in the Rada Kitchen, thanks for joining me! Today we’re going to make an appetizer that you can serve at your next Halloween party. These Meatball Eyeballs are made with ground chicken and pesto and are baked in a marinara sauce. This spooky crowd-pleaser will be a hit with everyone! Let’s go ahead and get started.

OK, first thing’s first. Let’s get our fresh parsley chopped. I’m going to grab my Rada French Chef’s knife and just give it a quick go-through. This is going to give our meatballs a fleck of color and flavor. Now we’re going to add everything to our ground chicken. You can use ground turkey or beef. I like this because it’s going to be light in texture and color. First comes chopped parsley, a fourth cup Parmesan cheese, and a fourth cup Italian whole wheat bread crumbs. Lastly, I have some ready-made pesto. I’m going to do a few heaping teaspoons of that. It’s going to give us a nice, salty garlic flavor.

I’m ready to combine ingredients. We’re going to stir all of these components together and then we’re going to add with our meatballs and use olives for the eyes. Here I have just a little over 3 cups of one of my favorite marinara sauces. You can use whichever you like. I’m going to use about a half teaspoon of crushed red pepper. To that I will add fresh basil that I’m going to tear. Then a couple more to brighten up our sauce. Give it a stir and it’s ready for our baking dish.

I’m going to put down that sauce. This is going to be our spooky, gory element to this dish. Let’s roll some meatballs. I’m taking a small scoop of the ground chicken mixture, giving it a roll, adding a green or black olive that I pop into the middle and into the pan it goes. OK, so here we have our eyeballs all prepped and ready for the oven. We’re just going to cover them and they’re going to bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

So here we have our ground chicken and pesto eyeballs. These will be perfect for your next Halloween event. They’re flavorful, healthy, and low fat. Thanks for joining me today, be sure to check us out at RadaCutlery.com and to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

End of Video Transcript

Meatball Eyeballs Recipe | Spooky Halloween Eyeball Appetizer