These vegan eggplant meatballs made with tender sautéed eggplant, crispy panko breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings, smothered in rich tomato sauce.

I promised a while back to provide some recipes to go with my marinara sauce. Of course, the obvious choice would be any kind of pasta, but I like to be a little more creative than that.

These “meatballs” are great on their own, served aside a big plate of pasta, on a sandwich, on top of a big mound of garlicky greens…you get the idea.

A versatile vegan side or main dish. Whatever you’re into!

I have my grandfather to thank for this one. He’s an excellent Italian cook. At some point during my teens he invited the whole family over for a big pasta dinner. I figured there’d be meat involved, but that wasn’t an issue for me. I was happy eating pasta, salad, bread, or whatever other non-meat items came along with the dinner.

But my grandfather decided to be extra accommodating. When I arrived he was cooking up a version of these eggplant meatballs. He’d seen them prepared on a cooking show and thought he’d give them a shot for me. He looked a little downcast and informed me that he didn’t think they turned out right.

I tried one and informed him that he was sorely mistaken — they were awesome!

I think he expected them to be meatier, since they were intended to be a vegetarian version of meatballs. What actually came out, to my tastebuds at least, was more like an eggplant Parmesan flavored ball of vegetarian goodness! I happily enjoyed my eggplant meatballs alongside my pasta that night, and took the leftovers home to make an amazing eggplant meatball Parm grinder.