Turkey Pesto Meatballs

By Gigi-licious

Serves 4 - 6

Prep Time:10 minutes, Cook Time: 25 minutes, Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pound lean ground turkey
• 1/4 cup pesto
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups weelicious tomato sauce

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place all the ingredients (except for the marinara sauce) in a bowl and using your hands, combine until everything is incorporated.
3. Using about 1 tablespoon of the mixture per meatball, roll into balls and place on a plate.
4. Pour the marinara sauce into a 9 x 9 inch baking pan and top with the meatballs.
5. Cover the baking pan with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.**
6. Serve.

To Freeze: Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet and freeze. After 30 minutes place the par-frozen balls in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. When ready, defrost in fridge for 24 hours or put them straight in the oven with sauce increasing cooking time by 5 minutes.

A weelicious reader emailed me recently saying that she had tried a version of these meatballs at a friend’s house, and while she knew the flavors and ingredients, she could not recall the amounts or how to make them. I love getting requests to figure out recipes because part of the fun for me in testing is discovering new family favorites. I’m so grateful to that reader because everyone under my roof loved these bite-sized gems. Shockingly, the person who ate the most -- Chloe, our 14 month old -- downed six (six!) in one meal. She probably would have eaten the whole batch had I let her, but even babies need to share!! Next time I have to remember to make double the amount.


Additional comments:

Cooking time was more like 30 minutes for me.

Just a side note, they did take a lot longer to cook than the 25 minutes. They were basically still raw when I took them out after the suggested time. I thought maybe I had made them too large, which I will make them smaller next time, but I do see that others had this issue as well.