Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
If you've been around me at all in the last three weeks, you know I'm engaged in a purge-a-thon around my house. If I don't absolutely love it or it's not essential and useful, it's being unloaded at Goodwill. This has meant (gasp!) several cookbooks, too. Usually ones that had nostalgic value, but hadn't been cracked open in years.
Jordan and I were wandering through the bookstore while she was home from NYC, and I had just finished pronouncing I was done with books. If I can't get it at the library or on my Kindle, forget it. Sarah the Minimalist is moving in. Then we came to the cookbook table, and Nigella Kitchen was 50% off. Beautiful, hardbound, full of her witticisms, great photos, and practical recipes. I looked at Jordan and said, "Forget everything I just said."
This recipe is an example of her accessibility. Granted, I don't need a recipe for tomato sauce or meatballs, but sometimes the discipline of following one gets me out of my ruts and habits. For instance, I'd never put pureed celery in a sauce. But the way she does it here give the sauce a brightness and sprightliness that I love.
Mixed with a pound of whole wheat spaghetti, topped with snowy shavings of parmesan, this made enough for two family dinners and a few lunches, besides. Definitely enough to justify the space the cookbook takes up. Right?
Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
I've changed the recipe significantly in that I bake the meatballs instead of dropping them into the sauce (as called for) or frying them, as many recipes suggest. I've never been happy with either method. Frying takes forever, as you need to do it in batches to avoid crowding. And dropping them in is supposed to produce the most tender meatballs, but the last time I did that, Mush Central. So I'm all about this new method. Perfect! Easy! Tender!
For sauce:
1 peeled onion
1 celery stalk
2 Tb. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
3 c. water
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
pepper, to taste
For meatballs:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 egg
3 Tb. breadcrumbs
3 Tb. grated Parmesan
2 Tb. finely chopped onion and celery (from tomato sauce ingredients)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
Preheat oven to 350.
Put the onion and celery in a food processor and blitz to a mush. Remove 2 Tb. for the meatball mixture.
Warm the olive oil in a large heavy saucepan or Dutch oven and add the onion/celery mixture, garlic, and dried thyme. Cook on moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and water. Season with sugar, salt and pepper, stir and let it come to a bubble, then turn the heat down to simmer gently while you make the meatballs.
Put all the ingredients for the meatballs, including the reserved onion and clergy mixture, into a large bowl and mix together gently. Don't overmix, or the meatballs will be heavy and dense.
Form the meatball mixture into heaped teaspoon-sized balls and put them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put into the preheated oven and cook while sauce simmers--about 25 minutes.
When meatballs are cooked through, drop them into the sauce, let it simmer for a couple more minutes, and serve over whole wheat spaghetti with shaved parmesan.
January 16, 2011
Reader Comments (20)
love that you too have a cookbook junkie sort of thing, in the midst of minimalism. And also that you too enjoy baking your meatballs--I agree with you wholeheartedly. Veronica requested meatballs for her birthday dinner, due to reading Bread & Jam with Francis by Russell Hoban (if you haven't read it--you must, a foodie book for kids and adults).
I love turkey meatballs - so flavorful and they can be healthier too!
beautiful! i'm drooling! i want some now! i love that grace that friends give when you have to take back something you said two seconds ago. :)
Now I'm torn! I planned to make a turkey-spinach meatloaf this week, but I could definitely make these and add spinach to the meatballs! I'll have to do some thinking. And while I've never cooked the meatballs directly in the sauce, I can agree that baking is a superior method of cooking meatballs as opposed to frying. It took long and they were quite heavy. Tasty, but heavy.
Cheers,
*Heather*
Im going to give turkey in meatballs a shot, i've always stuck to beef/pork/veal but next time im giving turkey a go :)
Yes!! Was trying to figure out what to make for dinner...and just got home from Costco with ground turkey! Perfect timing!
I discovered your site by accident yesterday, and I have already made something from it, am going to try the meatballs tomorrow. The pictures are fantastic by the way. Perfect timing for me also.
This sounds and looks delicious! I like the idea of baking the meatballs. I'm bookmarking all the recipes I want to do when I get back home. I'm living in South Korea and in my little city I can't get whole wheat pasta, ground turkey, or Parmesan, and I know only one place that sells canned tomatoes. And I had to get thyme from a foreign market. But I still enjoy perusing recipes from afar and I always really really enjoy your blog!
This looks so yummy, I'm definitely going to try it! Sarah, do you get the ground turkey of just breasts or the ground turkey with the thighs? It seems like sometimes when I use just the ground breast meat it's too dry.
Please forgive me, Sarah, for loving so much this post that I re-read it several times------and then I actually said out loud, following your recipe, ".....including the onion and clergy mixture", and I giggled myself silly, with no one even hearing my amusement! (Gary was asleep!) I thought it over for a day and then have decided you'll like it, too, no doubt, as will your lovely community, and you won't assume I'm laughing at you, but WITH you!!!! Sometimes those clergy mixtures just don't have enough seasonings, so I'm glad you've added onions!!!!!
(I'm almost certain and would bet money that celery was the word trying to form itself..........but I love it!)
I've long loved Nigella, but her last book (Express) left me totally bummed. Will need to look this one up. And make some meatballs. Yes, definitely meatballs.
these meatballs look grand! Need to make some soon, this is too tempting!
I love it when you find a recipe on the very day you were going to make something like it, but much less interesting. Now I will try this instead!
Thanks Sarah!
I got Nigella Kitchen as a gift over the holidays, there are some seriously stunning recipes in that tome! And, she makes suggestions with what to do with leftovers! It's great!
I am a cookbook whore, but purges my collection not too long ago - but yet I am still tempted to buy more!
I tend to sear my meatballs in Pam and just a tablespoon of olive oil (mine are usually about the size of golf balls - 16 per 1 pound of meat) at a high temp to sear the sides - I just keep shaking the pan back and forth until browned all over - and then simmer in sauce for just 15 minutes before serving - any longer and you do get mush.
Sadly, I don't make them nearly as often as I would like - can you believe my Italian husband doesn't like meatballs that much?!
sarah, i made these last night. true to form, they were easy! tender! delicious! AND, everyone loved them. check and check!
this just made me laugh.....again. oh how i adore you.
I love a good closet purge. And look at all your lovely comments! Yay! :)
Great idea cooking the meatballs in the oven. I agree with you on dropping meatballs into the sauce - mush central is right!