When we were in Laurel, Mississippi my dear friend Erin made us an awesome dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, salad and garlic bread. Since then, Garrett has mentioned no more than 25 times how good it was.
When we have a spaghetti dinner I usually make spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles (especially when we were eating Paleo about 80% of the time). I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve bought pasta noodles since we moved to the apartment in October 2011. Then when we had pasta at Erin’s, we remembered how good it really is – especially with a thick sauce and yummy homemade meatballs.
I like to go light on the pasta, with a few meatballs and then lots of sauce (with chunky sauteed veggies throughout). The ground turkey is a great substitute if you’re looking for a leaner meat to make the meatballs, but this recipe can easily be swapped for ground beef as well.
What you’ll need:
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 lbs ground turkey
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, parmesan, basil, parsley and garlic. I didn’t have bread crumbs, so I just put some melba toast in the food processor and pulsed it until it was fine. I used the food processor to chop up the basil, parsley and cheese as well. It was so much faster than grating and chopping everything.
Add the ground turkey to the mixture. Add in the eggs, milk, salt and pepper and mix with a fork. Using a fork keeps the mixture light and fluffy and prevents the meat from getting tough during cooking.
Using a cookie scoop or a small ice cream scoop, pull out a scoop of the meat mixture and lightly roll with your hands into a 1-1/2 inch ball. You should get about 24 meatballs.
Place the meatballs on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.
Meanwhile, I cooked the spaghettini (I like the thin stuff) in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente, and let the sauce simmer on the stove. Sometimes I use homemade tomato sauce, but this time I went with a jarred sauce. I usually jazz it up a little bit by sauteing some finely chopped veggies (zucchini, mushrooms, onions, garlic) in the pot with a little olive oil before I add the sauce to the pot. If the sauce is acidic, add in a spoonful of sugar to balance it. I let the whole thing simmer for about 20 minutes to thicken it a bit as well.
The meatballs came out fully cooked and just a little bit browned on top. I was excited to put them on the spaghettini, but they’d also be great in a meatball sub.
I like to layer this dish with spaghettini, then a little sauce, the meatballs, then more sauce and finally some fresh grated Parmesan cheese (a must!)
