Turkey & pesto meatballs in tomato sauce

Rarely has one dish so split the audience!

So if you're looking at this blog post and thinking "ooh, my husband/son would love that!", I advise you to go carefully - as I have a suspicion it may very well be girl food.  Reason being that I absolutely loved this dish (as it stands), but hubby hated it and son & heir wasn't all that keen.  Hubby did say, though, that the flavour of the meatballs was good - it was just the wine that I'd put into the tomato sauce that he disliked intensely.  Where son & heir is concerned, I think it was the indignity of having to have vegetables instead of pasta to accompany it.

Personally, I absolutely loved it and would happily have the same again tonight.

So, I decided to blog the recipe as without the wine in the sauce and served on pasta instead of with mashed potato and vegetables (although I'd be tempted to include the carrots & broccoli in the tomato sauce, on the pasta!) I think it would have been a lot better received.

Hence, it's up to you.  Go with the wine in the recipe if that's what you like.  Serve it with mashed potato and vegetables if that's what everyone likes.  Or you can go down the pasta route, if you think the potato/veggie combo is too "out there" for your tastes.

Of all the turkey meatball recipes I've made just recently, this is by far and away the easiest.  Simply mix the minced turkey with three quarters of a grated onion and two heaped teaspoonfuls of pesto (green or red - I used green).  Mush it all together and roll some meatballs.  So long as the turkey is straight from the fridge (i.e. extremely cold), the mixture will be very soft, but will hold together if you treat the meatballs gently.

The recipe did a very good job of using up the turkey mince that I had in the freezer, plus it made a large dent in the jar of pesto.  A few pasta lunches should see off the remainder!

Oh, and incidentally, I was looking today for some inspiration where cooking turkey was concerned, and tripped over this website Lean on Turkey.  As I'm quite keen on turkey as an ingredient (I think we could all do a lot worse than to eat more of it), I thought I'd pass it on!

TURKEY & PESTO MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

500g minced turkey
1 onion, peeled and grated
2 heaped tsp green or red pesto
1 tbsp olive oil.

For the sauce :
1 onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, grated
2 vine ripened tomatoes, diced small
1 glass red wine (optional)
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
a large pinch of dried oregano
an even larger pinch of dried basil
half a tsp paprika
1 tsp mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Take a large bowl and add the turkey, grated onion and pesto to it.  With your hands, squidge the meat together with the onion & pesto until evenly distributed.  Pinch off pieces to roll into meatballs, around the size of a walnut.  Should make 16-17 meatballs.

2.  In a frying pan, heat the olive oil until really quite hot - enough to make the meatballs sizzle as soon as they connect with the pan.  Add the meatballs and gently turn them after 30 seconds cooking.  This will "set" the outside shell of the meatball and prevent them from falling apart.

3.  Reduce the heat to medium and continue to fry the meatballs until coloured on all sides and firm to the touch.  Remove to an oven-proof dish and keep warm.

4.  Switch the oven on to pre-heat, at 180degC/350degF/Gas4.

5.  Without wiping the frying pan, add the onions to the remaining oil and cook on medium until softened.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute or so.

6.  If you are opting to use the red wine, add this now and bubble it until it has reduced by around half.

7.  Add the tomatoes and cook until they are softened, then add the tomato puree,
tomato ketchup, dried oregano, dried basil, paprika and mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce.  Give everything a good stir and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so.


8.  Taste and adjust seasoning with the sea salt & black pepper.


9.  Pour the sauce over the meatballs, then add to the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until bubbling.


10.  Serve, either with mashed potato & vegetables, or with pasta & vegetables (which could be added to the sauce before serving).


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Baked Turkey & Carrot Meatballs with Garlic Roast Potatoes

I seem to be having a bit of a meatball moment, right now.

I suppose, thinking about it for a moment or two, it is because (it seems) that whatever appears in meatball shape, son & heir will eat without demur.  Quite apart from that being good for his health, it is also good for ours - as not having a sulky teenager picking disconsolately at his food, means that we can relax and enjoy our meal.

I note that I've got a meatball recipe coming up in the next week, too - so I'll have to back off on them a wee bit, or we'll all be suffering with meatball exhaustion soon.

This meatball recipe, however, was a bit different in that a) the meatballs contain grated carrot (see health comment, above) and b) they are cooked in the oven.

I was a tiny bit dubious as to the success of this recipe because of those two points and in the knowledge that I'd have to pep up the tomato sauce, to make it flavoursome enough to satisfy the family's taste buds.  The original recipe stated to just cover the meatballs with a tin of tomatoes and that was it.  I couldn't see how that would equate to a "tomato sauce" - it certainly didn't in my opinion!  Now ordinarily, I'd fry off meatballs before making the sauce - then dunk the meatballs back in and the whole thing would be done on the hob.

With this recipe (the original of which can be found here on the BBC Good Food website and is created by Lucy Netherton), the meatballs are rolled, then placed into a baking tray and baked, then the tomatoes are added to the tray with some Parmesan cheese, baked a little more and served.  Now I like this kind of dish.  Cooking it in the oven in this way is fairly easy on the cook in that you don't need to stand (sit, in my case) over the cooker, watching and stirring.  Instead I can spend some time doing the dishes (and reduce the amount that will need doing after the meal) or tidying up the kitchen (which often falls to hubby to do), or just plain go and have a sit down for 20 minutes or so.  So I was intrigued to discover how the meatballs would fare, cooked in this way.

The other point is that, as you've got the oven on anyway, you might as well make the most of it and cook some of the accompaniments that way.  Hence the Garlic Roast Potatoes.  (I also included a lost and lonely parsnip.  Well, it gave it a job to do!).  These potatoes are billed as "crispy potatoes", but I fail to see how potatoes can get crispy, when you've got a pot of bubbling tomatoes in the same oven, which is filling it with steam.  Mine certainly didn't.  However, they were very tasty - and very moreish.

I used the Jelly potatoes that Greenvale Farmfresh had sent and very delicious they were, too.  I am sure they would have crisped up, had it not have been for the steamy tomatoes, as they were demonstrating a degree of crispness, even so.  The flavour of the potato stood up remarkably well to being mixed with the garlic and rosemary - both of which are very strong flavours that could easily have swamped out the natural potato.  I'll definitely be looking for these spuds again in future.  I just hope that they manage to get them into Asda supermarkets, as I hate our local Tesco!

Anyway, getting back to the meatballs - in order to pep up the tomato sauce, before mixing with the meatballs, I tipped the tomatoes into a bowl and added some tomato ketchup, a splosh of mushroom ketchup, a pinch of dried parsley, some salt & pepper and a teaspoon of paprika and gave it all a good mix.  It certainly did the trick, as the tomato sauce was rich, tasty and did a good job replacing gravy where the vegetables were concerned.  As a side point, the colour - enhanced by the paprika, no doubt - particularly, the red of the sauce against the green of the broccoli, was amazing!

This meal was quite ridiculously healthy and exceptionally low in fat.  Any fat that might come from the Turkey is drained off prior to adding the tomatoes, so really the only fat you are ingesting is coming from the tablespoonful of olive oil used to cook the potatoes.  Dividing that between three people and whatever was left on the baking tray, amounts to not a lot of fat!

The best bit of all, though, was that it was a tasty and satisfying meal.  So many of these extraordinarily healthy dinners are just that - but don't last.  Within an hour or so you're beginning to wonder what to put on some toast - and that's not the idea at all.

Everyone enjoyed this meal - and I'll bet not one of my chaps realised that there was a grated carrot in those meatballs.

BAKED TURKEY & CARROT MEATBALLS WITH GARLIC ROAST POTATOES  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp rosemary leaves, chopped finely
450g turkey mince
4 large potatoes, skin on and cut into small cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
400g can cherry or chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire Sauce)
a pinch of dried parsley
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp grated Parmesan.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 220degC (200degC fan)/425deg F/Gas 7.

2.  In a large bowl, combine the onion, carrot, half the garlic, half the rosemary, some seasoning and the turkey mince.  Give everything a good squidge around until it is evenly mixed.

3.  Shape into 15 meatballs and place into a deep sided baking tray or oven proof dish.

4.  In another bowl, toss the potato pieces with the remaining garlic, rosemary, more seasoning and the oil.  Turn them out onto a shallow sided baking tray and give it a little shake to settle everything and ensure every little spud has a space around it.

5.  Place both trays into the oven - potatoes on top, meatballs underneath - for 20 minutes.

6.  In the meantime, you can prepare the tomato sauce by taking another bowl (I used one bowl and just washed it up in between times!) and adding to it the tomatoes, tomato ketchup, mushroom ketchup, parsley, seasoning and paprika.  Give everything a good mix to ensure it's combined.  If you can cope with cold tinned tomatoes, you can taste to check the seasoning.

7.  At the end of the 20 minutes, remove the meatballs and drain the juices into the nearest dog's bowl.  Add the tomato sauce mixture and turn the meatballs in it, to ensure everything is evenly coated.

8.  Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top and replace into the oven to continue baking for another 20 minutes.

9.  Turn the potatoes, to ensure even baking, and replace for the prescribed 20 minutes.

10.  What you are aiming for, is lovely browned and (hopefully) crispy roast potatoes, and to have the tomato sauce bubbling well in the meatball tray.

11.  Serve with some steamed broccoli, as a good combination and for awesome colour.

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Turkey & chorizo meatballs on Pesto Spaghetti

This recipe is one of those that I didn't have a lot of faith in - but how wrong was I?

It was born when hubby and I were contemplating what was left over in the fridge from previous meals, that needed using up.  I had two cooking chorizo that had been sitting waiting for something to do for, probably two weeks or more - and they were getting a little downhearted.  So, it was time to find something for them.


The Turkey & Fennel meatball dish has, so far, spawned a couple of meatball recipes that I've been quite happy with.  Plus, turkey mince is just so easy to convert to meatballs.  Taken directly from the fridge, it doesn't require any breadcrumbs, or egg, to hold it together - I've never yet had a turkey meatball collapse on me.  I've included chargrilled peppers with the turkey mince for meatballs, which were very decent - and this time, I included my two chorizo sausages, chopped finely.

I also added a half a teaspoon of finely ground black pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes (plus a little salt) for seasoning - which turkey definitely requires.  Neither the pepper nor the chilli made a discernible impact upon the meatballs, but I can imagine that they would have been fairly bland, without them.


As the meatballs cook, they release the lovely paprika flavoured oil from the chorizo, which lends colour (as well as flavour) to the turkey mince.  I will admit that I did slightly overdo the colouration on the meatballs, but I was aware that the chorizo was fairly elderly and wasn't prepared to take any chances.  Not with hubby having just got over a nasty tummy conniption - didn't want any action replays of that!

To accompany the meatballs, I made a lovely pan of spaghetti which I then tossed in a red pesto.  Gorgeous.


Now I really love spaghetti.  I think, over all the pastas, it's my favourite type - with linguine a close second.  I love, at the beginning of a meal, twirling my fork in the pasta strands and the challenge of eating it without getting it all down my front.  (Which isn't easy - as my front has a magnetic effect, where food is concerned).  Then, as the meal progresses, I change from demurely twiddling to grabbing a spoon and chopping off great spoonfuls of spaghetti.  I know that's not how you're supposed to eat the stuff, but it works for me - and there's something so comforting about munching your way through hot spaghetti that's coated in a lovely tomato sauce or a pesto.  Happy days!

If you think about how much this dish has cost, it really was one of the most economical recipes I've cooked, recently.  It probably only cost around £1.50 per portion - and if you've already got spaghetti in your store cupboard (and pepper, chilli flakes & olive oil), then it's probably even less.

With a liberal sprinkling (actually, something of a deluge) of finely grated Parmesan, this was a supremely easy dinner - that everyone really liked the flavours of.  Not everyone in our family enjoys spaghetti, but it was very nice to have it for a change.  I'll definitely be making those meatballs again.

TURKEY & CHORIZO MEATBALLS ON PESTO SPAGHETTI   (Serves 3)

Ingredients :

500g turkey mince
100g cooking chorizo sausages
½ a tsp of finely ground black pepper
a large pinch of dried red chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
300g or thereabouts, of dried spaghetti
200g jar of red pesto
finely grated Parmesan, to serve.

Method :

1.  Take the chorizo sausage and chop into tiny dice, as finely as you can achieve.  Place into a large bowl with the turkey mince, pepper and chilli flakes and give a good mix and squish with your hands, to make sure the chorizo and seasoning is evenly spread.

2.  Take a pinch of the mixture and roll in your hands (it helps to keep your hands wet) to form a walnut-sized (or slightly smaller) ball.  Don't make the meatballs too big, or they take for ever to cook.  These quantities should make 12-13.

3.  Next, place a large pan of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti and heat the oil in a frying pan.


4.  When the oil is really quite hot, gently introduce the meatballs to the frying pan and cook - reducing the heat if necessary - until the oil from the chorizo has finished running from them and they have a good caramelisation, without being burnt!


5.  When the water boils, cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions, then drain and add the pesto.  Toss the spaghetti to coat each strand in pesto.


6.  Serve onto warmed plates, placing the meatballs on top of the spaghetti and with finely grated Parmesan for sprinkling over.


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Making a little go a long way - or trying to! Meal Plan for week beginning 30 August 11

There are a couple of things going on with our income this week that mean it would be good if we could try to just tighten our belts a little.  Hence, I'm afraid you won't be finding expensive cuts of meat, or fancy fish (well, apart from Scampi - but that's our one indulgence for this week!) on the menu list.

However, you will find a great deal of involvement with the wonderful thing that is mince.  Beef mince, turkey mince, pork mince - it's all there, in various incarnations.  That and the wonderful bacon we get from our local butcher.  It's not only cheaper than the supermarkets and so unbelievably good, but you get almost twice the amount in rasher size, too!

So.  Here's how this week of semi-frugality is shaping up :

Tuesday : Son - Lasagne, Adults - Pork Noodle Stir-fry

Wednesday : Tenderstem broccoli & bacon quiche, lemony new potatoes and salad

Thursday : Scampi and salad

Friday : Pasta with bacon, peas and mint

Saturday : Turkey meatball & sweetcorn curry, rice & naan bread

Sunday : Cornish Pasties and salad

Monday : Chilli con carne with rice.

I'm still not quite back firing on all four cylinders as I was prior to contracting Shingles, plus my right knee seems to have a life of its own in that it suddenly decides to not have anything to do with what we're trying to achieve.  It has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion, just lately.  I have resolved to deep breathe and carry on, once it has decided to let me.  Oh the trials of arthritis!  As such, I've kept my recipes to things that are easily achieved and don't require much time spent in the kitchen - or much walking to and fro.

We opted to utilise "Pizza Tuesday" at the beginning of the week and indulged in a Stir Fry.  We had already put aside a Lasagne in the freezer for Son & heir for just such an occasion, which when he came to the kitchen to ask what was for dinner, he was heartily relieved to learn was headed in his direction.  He'd been looking very dubiously at the stir fry out of the corner of his eye, with a distinct air of consternation in the enquiry.

The Pork Noodle Stir Fry wasn't a resounding success, regrettably, as hubby found the sprinkling of fresh mint to be a challenging flavour too many.  Everything else he was relatively happy with - even the dressing of lime juice, soy sauce, wine vinegar and honey.  The recipe used pork mince and I took a short cut and bought a fresh stir fry mix (with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts - yum!) to take the place of the vegetables.  I was enjoying the meal to begin with, but found I quickly got bored with the flavours.  So, we won't be indulging in this one again - not when there are much nicer stir fry recipes out there!

This evening, we've just had a lovely Tenderstem Broccoli & Bacon Quiche (see the original recipe here on the Tenderstem website) accompanied with Lemony new potatoes and salad.

You know, hubby said it and I completely agree with him - Tenderstem Broccoli is almost as nice as Asparagus.  I won't go into raptures here over it, as I'm intending to do a blog post specifically for both the quiche and the potato recipe, as they went together so well.  Plus, if ever the Tenderstem website disappears at least I'll have the recipe on my blog!

I'll be at work on Thursday and we had been wracking our brains to try to think of something easy for hubby to cook that evening.  Suddenly a shaft of inspiration came down from on high (or from somewhere, anyway!) and hubby exclaimed "scampi!".  So, scampi it is - with salad and lovely crusty bloomer bread.  Yummy!

Last Sunday I had been reading other folks' blogs and came across "Senses in the kitchen".  Detailed thereon, was an intriguing and deliciously simple recipe for Pasta with Bacon, Peas and mint.  You can find the recipe here if you're curious.  Now I won't deny that following on from hubby's problem with the mint in the stir fry, I'm not as confident as I was.  However, this is a much simpler mix of flavours which are all compatible, so I've got my fingers firmly crossed!  As for son & heir, well, he's a different matter - there is no saying whether he'll like it or not, so I'll carry on and hope for the best.

Saturday's Turkey Meatball & Sweetcorn Curry has been trying to be made for the last couple of weeks, without success.  Turkey mince is so economical and the meatballs stay together most beautifully when they are cooked, so they are perfect ammunition for a curry.  I suspect I'll add a few curry spices to the meatballs, just to get them headed in the right direction.  As for the inclusion of sweetcorn - well, there's so much of it about and it is so deliciously sweet, it seemed a perfect accompaniment to the gentle flavour of the meatballs.

The Cornish Pasties are a request from hubby.  Again, they are relatively easy to make - I'll have to get hubby to do the rolling out of the pastry this time, as it nearly did for me the last time!  With the addition of the mandolin which makes slicing so easy, it should be a fairly easy job.  Fingers crossed!  (If I've any left, having used the mandolin!).

Last, but far from least, we've booked in a Chilli Con Carne for Monday.  The advantages of having a chilli on a Monday are that we won't be needing to try to keep any vegetables fresh for use in it (other than an onion!) and hubby can make chilli with one hand tied behind his back - and a cracking good chilli, at that.

We'll have it with your standard boiled rice, but Son & heir and myself like to sprinkle our chilli with grated cheddar cheese and, um, weasels.  Yes, you read that right - weasels.  When Son & heir was just a little 'un, he couldn't pronounce sultanas - and for some unknown reason, they wound up being "weasels".  So - chilli with weasels and cheese, anyone?

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Turkey meatballs in tomato & fennel sauce

Prior to being doused with a whole heap of Parmesan!

This recipe is nothing short of a triumph - for many reasons.

I chose it because I was intrigued by the idea of tomato & fennel sauce and reckoned that if it worked, it'd be worthwhile the pain of making the meatballs.  However, it proved to be not only extremely cheap to make, but extremely easy to make.  It was also our first go at wholemeal pasta (delivered in error) for years - and the final accolade was that everyone enjoyed it!

I had scheduled it for a Wednesday, as because I don't work on Wednesdays, I'd be free to make & cook the meatballs in advance, so ensuring it didn't turn out to be a long haul in the making.  This was important, as having been out the day before, my energy levels were fairly low.

The meatballs are almost a pleasure to make, as they are simply a matter of combining the turkey mince with breadcrumbs and garlic.  I had a flash of inspiration and added a teaspoonful of grated lemon zest and some seasoning, which was oddly missing from the original recipe.  They didn't require chilling, as everything had come straight from the fridge in the first place and the little meatballs were hanging together perfectly.

So, I just fried them off and left them under the grill (covered with silver foil so that they didn't dry out) until the sauce was made, later on.

The pasta was a happy accident.  I'd ordered just ordinary fusilli, but what was delivered was wholemeal fusilli.  I was about to send it back, when hubby suggested we try it, just in case the quality has improved over the years.  I have horrible memories of nasty gritty pasta that went under the name of wholemeal, so I was a tad dubious.  However, it was perfectly fine.  Not gritty and for once actually tasted of something.  I have found that most supermarket pasta doesn't taste of a great deal, but this had a bit of a nutty flavour which was very acceptable.  It's also better for hubby, as being slightly diabetic, it's good to have carbohydrates that release slowly, which wholemeal does.

So, with some grated parmesan for sprinkling over (and cheddar for son & heir, who isn't a parmesan fan), it made a great mid-week dinner for the family.

I like Willie's idea of adding a little cube of cheese to the meatballs, and might try that next time - but I reckon I'll leave the lemon zest out, in that case!  lol

TURKEY MEATBALLS IN TOMATO & FENNEL SAUCE  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

400g turkey mince (I made mine with 350g which was fine for 3 people)
25g fresh breadcrumbs
2 garlic cloves, grated
zest of half a lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, diced small
1 tsp fennel seeds
400g chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
2-3 splashes of Worcestershire Sauce
400g fusilli, cooked, to serve
grated parmesan or cheddar, to serve.

Method :

1.  Put the mince in a mixing bowl with the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and half the garlic.  Season and mix well to combine.  Using your hands, shape the mixture into small balls, around 15-16 or so and chill for 10 minutes if necessary.

2.  Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a pan and add the onion, carrot and remaining garlic.  Cook for 5-6 minutes or until softened.

3.  Pop the fennel seeds into a pestle & mortar and grind them lightly to just break them up a bit.  If you don't have a pestle & mortar, just put them in as is.  Add the fennel seeds and cook for a few seconds, stirring to combine.

4.  Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.  Add a half a can of water, season and stir to combine well.  Allow to simmer for some 15 minutes or so until thickened and reduced.

5.  Using a non-stick frying pan, fry the meatballs for 8-10 minutes until cooked through.  Transfer them to the sauce and simmer until piping hot.

6.  Serve with the fusilli and with cheese sprinkled over.

Yum!