What's For Dinner: Spaghetti and (Baked Turkey) Meatballs


When I order pasta in a restaurant, I typically go for a pasta with marinara sauce, "no meatballs, please." However, lately I've been on a ground turkey meatball kick, though I have no idea where it came from. The first few times I made this recipe, I fried the meatballs in olive oil, but I figured the healthier (and let's face it, less messy) way to cook these meatballs would be to bake them. I tried the baking method last night, and the meatballs came out perfectly. Sometimes I have trouble with the meatballs keeping their round shape; I combated this problem by baking them in a mini cupcake tin.

Baked Turkey Meatballs (printer-friendly version)
makes about 14 meatballs

1 small onion, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup steel-cut oats (alternately, you can use dried bread crumbs)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 egg white
1 pound ground organic turkey meat

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a mini cupcake tin (or rimmed baking sheet) with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Add the chopped onion and garlic cloves to the bowl of a food processor with the blade attached. Pulse several times until the onions and garlic are finely chopped.
3. Add the onion-garlic mixture to a large shallow bowl. Stir in the steel-cut oats, tomato paste, parsley, cheese, oregano, salt, pepper, and egg white.
4. Stir in the ground turkey meat and continue stirring until all the ingredients are combined.
5. Chill the meatball mixture in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.
6. Use your hands to shape the meat into 1"-diameter meatballs. Place the meatballs onto the prepared baking sheet or into each mini cupcake cup.
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and are no longer pink in the middle.
8. Serve the meatballs over spaghetti and tomato sauce. Alternately, you could serve these meatballs as appetizers with marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

(adapted from this Giada De Laurentiis recipe)
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