Why?
- preference: I've grown less used to beef, since I haven't been eating it as often.
- economic: Ground Empire Turkey, $3.99/lb at Trader Joe's, vs $6.50/lb for beef when they have it.
- Health: turkey's less bad for you anyway.
The fear was that ground turkey wouldn't taste enough like "real" meatballs to go with red sauce. I think it turned out better, in a way, since it didn't have as much of the excess grease that beef burger produces.
Spices to make the turkey more beefy:
- Worcestershire sauce
- tamari
- ground sage
- ground bayleaf
- coriander
- thyme
- oregano
- ground peper
- Ro insists on cumin, so I added a bit
- egg to bind it
- next time, I'll try potato flakes too. Ro says he's been adding it to the turkey burgers.
Previously, meatballs turned into meat sauce. Yesterday, I learned to have enough frying-pan surface to allow each to cook on the bottom and be turned before it can stick to its neighbor and be merged.
The sauce: sauteed red onion, rosemary, celery, garlic clove, zuchinni, in olive oil then added meatballs as I formed them. Moved the meatballs to the auxiliary frying pan before dumping in a can of tomato paste and 2-3 cans of water. After the water stirred in to a good sauce consistency, I put the meatballs back in. Then added a few sprigs of chopped frozen broccoli and some frozen spinach to give it more green.
Served on top of whole wheat spaghetti. Thought red wine would go with it. Looked in Christmas-present crate from Gonzalo and Lisa. Chose THE VELVET DEVIL MERLOT 2009 WASHINGTON STATE. All caps on the label, so here too. I liked it quite a lot. The first Merlot I've liked. Screw-top cap. Fun.
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