I have been a vegetarian for the better part of 12 years, but over the last little while I have wanted to become a flexitarian (you know, follow a mostly vegetarian diet, but eat meat occasionally). Adding a little meat back into my diet will make me a less picky eater, open up so many more food possibilities, and make it easier for me to eat more protein (I'll be the first to admit that I am sometimes a lazy vegetarian). To start my adventures in eating meat again, I thought I would try an old classic from my childhood - spaghetti and meatballs. Red meat is still a bridge too far for me though, so I decided to make turkey meatballs. As Gwyneth Paltrow's
goop is a guilty pleasure of mine, I followed
this recipe. Cooking over here can be a bit of adventure - I couldn't find any ground turkey so had to finely mince some turkey breast, and I modified the spices a bit to suit what we had in the house, but this recipe was a great first foray into the world of meat. My carnivorous husband thought it was delicious too.
Turkey Meatballs (Courtesy of Gwynnie's friend Julia)
SERVES: 4 (makes about 2 dozen small meatballs)
TIME: an hour, plus at least 20 minutes of simmering
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil plus 2 additional tablespoons
1 large yellow onion, very finely diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
coarse sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary (I substituted herb de Provence for these two ingredients)
1 pound ground turkey (preferably dark meat)
1 egg
1 pound spaghetti, cooked just before serving
1/4 cup basil leaves, roughly torn
Method
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch oven (or saucepan) over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about eight minutes, sweating it without giving it too much color. When it’s soft, add the garlic and fennel seeds and season generously with salt and pepper (about a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper should do). Sauté for an additional three or four minutes. Remove and reserve half of this onion mixture in a large mixing bowl. Add the tomatoes and their juice to the remaining mixture in the pot, turn the heat to low and simmer while you make the meatballs. Be sure to put a little water in the tomato can, swish it around and add it to the pot.
To make the meatballs, combine the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, parsley, thyme and rosemary with the reserved onion mixture. Add the turkey and egg and mush it all with your hands (the best tool for this job) just until everything is well-combined, don't over mix. Form the mixture into 1-1/2" balls with your hands (of course you can make them whatever size you like). Heat the last two tablespoons of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Making sure not to overcrowd the pan, brown the meatballs (should take about five minutes). Put the browned meatballs into the simmering tomato sauce and let them cook, shaking the pot occasionally to roll the meatballs around, for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour and a half. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Serve with spaghetti and the torn basil.
Of course, no meal is complete without dessert.
These brownies topped off with fleur de sel caramel ice cream, another new favourite discovered in Normandy.
