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Pasta with Turkey Meatballs
A spaghetti recipe with ground turkey instead of beef meatballs from America's test kitchen
Equipment
- 1 10" skillet
- 1 Large pot for cooking pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces ground turkey
- 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup prepared basil pesto
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 1/4 tsp sugar, plus extra for seasoning
- 6 ounces spaghetti
- 1 Tbsp fresh basil, shredded
- grated parmesan cheese
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Gently mix ground turkey, panko, pesto, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper together using your hands. Roll the mixture into eight 1" meatballs.
- Heat the oil in the skillet over medium heat and brown the meatballs well on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer them to a paper towel lined plate
- Add the minced garlic to the hot fat left in the skillet and cook over medium heat until fragrant about 30 seconds. Don't let the garlic burn. Stir in the tomatoes and the sugar scraping up the browned bits, bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened, 5-8 minutes.
- Return the meatballs to the skillet and cook gently until they are cooked through about 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper or more sugar to taste.
- Cook the pasta. When draining, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.Mix the pasta with the sauce and the extra cooking water. Top each serving with 4 meatballs, a sprinkle of basil. Serve with parmesan.
