Wednesday, November 07, 2007

It's hard to screw up meatballs
--Turkey Cacciatore Meatballs



Turkey Cacciatore Meatballs
Mr. Food Every Day’s A Holiday Diabetic Cookbook
Copyright 2002

1 pound ground turkey breast
½ cup Italian-flavored bread crumbs
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ of a medium-sized green bell pepper, finely chopped
½ of a medium-sized onion, finely chopped
1 jar (28 ounces) light spaghetti sauce, divided
2 eggs
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup olive oil

1. In a large bowl, combine the turkey, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, bell pepper, onion, ¼ cup spaghetti sauce, the eggs, garlic powder, oregano, and black pepper. With clean hands, combine the mixture until thoroughly mixed. Form into 24 meatballs; set aside.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Place the meatballs in the pot a few at a time and brown for 2 to 3 minutes, gently turning to brown on all sides.
3. Drain off excess liquid and add the remaining sauce to the pot; reduce the heat to low; cover, and simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
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I don't really ever get tired of meatballs. One nice thing about turkey meatballs is you don't have to cook them for a really, really long time so I put these together the night before but I didn't have to cook them until the next evening when we ate them.

I don't usually put green peppers in my meatballs because they can be overpowering, but since I expected the green peppers to be prominent, they worked here. They really tasted like 'cacciatore'.

I used buccatini or whatever that spaghetti with the hole in the middle is called. It's hard to eat! It's much messier than spaghetti since it doesn't curl around a fork as easily. Thank God I was wearing my husband's shirt while I was eating.

This was a library book. I prefer it to the Mr. Food book I own. It has a lot of promising recipes in it.

Blast From The Past: Cinnamony Apple Streusel Bars from December 2006. I have a surplus of graham crackers and apples - maybe I'll make these again.

Question of the Day: How do you eat spaghetti or
other long pasta? Do you cut it? Do you swirl it
around a fork? Do you use the fork-spoon combo?

6 comments:

Annie said...

I usually eat spaghetti with meatballs, it's just seems right. I eat all kinds of long pasta in other dishes.

I usually twirl mine on my fork and just slurp up the danglers. My mom is Italian and when we went to Italy to visit relatives years ago, most people used the fork and spoon method. Only one true pasta lover was able to neatly grap every strand around his fork without the help of a spoon. It was amazing!

Anonymous said...

When I make spaghetti at home, I break it into small lengths that can be eaten with a fork. If I'm eating out, I use the fork and spoon method.

Jan

meddlingkidd said...

When I make spaghetti I always break it in half before putting it in the pot. That drives my hubby nuts but its the way my Mom and grandmother always did it too so he has to live with it :D! Then when I eat it I just twirl it on the fork!

Jen
meddlingkidd

DancesInGarden said...

Twirler here. Separate a strand or two from the rest and twist. Those meatballs look good. I have been craving stuffed peppers, basically for the pepper flavour in the sauce part. I suppose if I tried those meatballs over rice rather than pasta it would be close. Hmmmmmmm.

Bunny_lover said...

I cut mine! I do perfer other shpes of pasta.

Anonymous said...

Like Annie, I'm a twirl then slup kinda gal. Probably why I never order spaghetti out at a restaurant!