Sexy Meatballs!

For this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, Oddball Oven Mitt chose Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs in Spicy Tomato Sauce. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about this one. Ground turkey. Whole wheat pasta. Snore. However, good little Ellie-ista that I am, I tried the recipe, and I have to say that I was pleasantly suprised. The sauce had a sexy little kick, thanks to chipotles in adobo, fire-roasted tomatoes, and a whopping 6 cloves of garlic. Plus, I got to use the gorgeous bouquet of basil I got at the farmer's market this weekend. So thank you Miss Oven Mitt for nudging me to try a recipe I would've otherwise overlooked!

I always use a little trick I learned from Sally Schneider when cooking with ground turkey. She advocates soaking a piece of stale bread in milk rather than just using dry bread crumbs in your meatball mixture. Lowfat milk adds negligible extra calories and the extra moistness is unparallelled. SS has a lot of great tips, if you like Ellie's full flavored yet healthy recipes, you'll love Sally's A New Way to Cook.

But on to the main event!

Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs in Spicy Tomato Sauce

adapted from The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger

Sauce:
1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup grated carrot

3 tbsp tomato paste

one 28 oz can crushed fire-roasted tomatoes

1 tsp fincely minced chipotles in adobo

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp red pepper flakes

6 leaves basil, roughly torn

a glug of wine, if you happen to be drinking some

Meatballs:

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 slice stale bread, soaked in milk, wrung out and torn up

1/4 cup grated carrot

1/4 finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, pressed in the garlic press

2 tbsp minced parsley

1 tsp dried thyme

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp salt

freshly ground pepper

Spaghetti:

1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti, cooked according to package

1/3 cup grated parmigiano reggiano

minced basil for garnish

To make the sauce, saute onions in olive oil for a few minutes, add garlic and saute another minute, and finally add carrots. Stir in tomato paste and can of tomatoes, including all their juices, as well as chipotles, oregano, red pepper flakes, optional wine, and salt and pepper. Cover partially and simmer away while you prepare the meatballs.

To make the meatballs, combine your ground turkey, garlic, beaten egg, milk-soaked bread bits, carrot, onion, dried thyme, parsley and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Remove all jewelry and squish away until your stress level is down to zero, or your ingredients are fully combined. Preheat broiler. Roll meat mixture into 1 1/2-2 inch balls and place on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking oil. Broil for 12 minutes, flipping halfway.

To plate, combine a lovely tangle of noodles, a heaping ladle of sauce, a few sizzling meatballs, garnish with parmegiano and basil, and enjoy!