Budget Eat Repeat

Three words: Tender. Turkey. Meatballs. They’re inexpensive, surprisingly simple to make, and they get an enthusiastic thumbs up from the fam every time. I’ve always loved a good meatball from an Italian restaurant, but to be honest, since adding these to our weeknight menu, the meatballs that I’ve had elsewhere have been a major let down. They have been tough, dry, and pretty bland in flavor. Here are the three secrets I use in these babies that solve those problems

1. Toughness: Make a panade prior to forming your meatballs. A panade is a mixture of milk and bread crumbs. Before you do anything, put your milk and bread crumbs in a bowl together and mix them into a paste.  After the paste is formed you can add the rest of the ingredients in on top of the panade and mix them all together like you normally would for a meatball. The milk soaked bread crumbs will take the tenderness of these meatballs to the next level.
2. Dryness: Parmesan cheese and cooking them in marinara. The saltiness of cheese makes it an excellent agent for locking in moisture, and parmesan is a light enough flavor that it doesn’t overpower the dish. Cooking the meatballs in marinara sauce instead of baking them or frying them in oil allows them to absorb the moisture and tomatoey goodness from their surroundings.
3. Blandness: Cooking the meatballs in marinara not only helps eliminate dryness, but it also deepens the flavor profile of the dish. Just like letting your soup simmer, or meat marinate, steeping blank canvas meatballs in your favorite tangy marinara sauce really rounds out their flavors.

One of the seasonings I use in these meatballs to make them taste truly Italian is fennel seed (ground or whole). It’s something I’ve added to my spice cabinet specifically for this recipe and have found a surprising number of dishes I can add it into to add that iconic Italian sausage flare. (Check out my mom’s lasagna recipe, my homemade turkey Italian sausage, and Italian sausage tortellini soup.)

I have two ways of prepping these for the freezer.

1. Combine all of the ingredients together, form the raw mixture into balls and freeze them on a lined baking sheet. Once they’re frozen through, I throw them into a gallon sized bag. When it comes time to use the meat balls, I cook them as directed below, but I cook them for 20 minutes on each side instead of 15.
2. Cook as directed and dump everything (meatballs and sauce) into a gallon bag and freeze flat. When the time comes to use the meatballs I thaw the meatballs in cool water until I can break up the bag enough to fit them into a slow-cooker. I reheat them on low for 4 hours.