Meatballs in Giada's Sauce

When I started blogging, I began to explore new taste sensations, new culinary treats, and as a result, did not make many of the old favorites, as often, in the past. Meatballs were almost dropped when we cut back on our meat intake.  

One of my favorite dishes had been meatballs in many guises but good old Spaghetti and Meatballs led the pack.  Although, I would not call it a comfort food, it came close.  Pasta is always comforting and a tasty meatball only makes it better.

I am emptying my freezer and one of the items in it is three packages of chopped turkey.  One of them is being eaten, tonight,  thanks to Giada.

Pasta with Turkey Meatballs     Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup plain corn meal
  • 2 tablespoons Rice milk
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 pound ground turkey 
  • 1 onion, chopped in mini blender
  • Salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • 5 cups tomato sauce, recipe follows
  • 1 pound pasta

Directions:

Meatballs

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl add bread crumbs Rice milk and mix until well combined. 
Mix in eggs.

Add chopped turkey and gently combine, being careful not to overwork the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Shape into medium size balls.
Place meatballs on large cast iron pan or baking sheet with edges.
Place in oven and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.



Simple Tomato Sauce:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 stalk celery, chopped
1carrot, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
2 dried bay leaves

In a large pot, heat oil over medium high heat. 
Add onion and saute until soft and translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Add celery and carrots and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5-10 minutes. 
Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer uncovered on low heat for 1 hour or until thick. Remove bay leaves and check for seasoning.
Giada blends her sauce to make it smoother but in this case, we like it a bit lumpy so I skipped that step.
I also put the meatballs in the sauce and cooked for 30 minutes of the hour to give the sauce more flavor.


Next time, I would add chopped carrots.






Check out the meatball and the pasta recipes at I Heart Cooking Clubs and eat hearty for weeks.


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Comments

  1. Meatballs are a very comforting and fun food and yours look terrific! So happy to have you with us at I Heart Cooking Clubs.

    The design of your website is adorable! Love the background.

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  2. Welcome to IHCC--so nice to have you cooking along with us. Turkey meatballs are such a great way to enjoy comfort food on the lighter side. ;-)

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  3. Delish! I was planning on doing turkey meatballs too - but when I took out the tray of turkey from the freezer... it ended up being beef. ☺ Ah well, we use what we have! Welcome.

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  4. Ground turkey is not so easy to come by where I live, and when you can get it is very expensive, so I would most likely make this with chicken. Great to have a supply of meatballs in the freezer - which reminds me I have one packet of my last batch of Giada's mini chicken meatballs in the freezer.
    Thanks for sharing this.
    Sue :-)

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  5. Yummm! Meatballs are GOOD comfort food. How fun that you used turkey instead. Way to find a healthier option! Thanks for linking up on Recipes I Can't Wait to Try!

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  6. Great recipe. Would you be happy to link in to my Meatball edition of Food on Friday? This is the link . Hope you are having a good week.

    PS did you know that some of the image links in this seem to be broken?

    ReplyDelete

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