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These meatballs are a cross between a true meatball and a ricotta dumpling. They’re juicy, oh so tender and served with a garlicky tomato sauce that is best soaked up with lots of carbs.
Must love garlic.
This recipe is for all my garlic lovers out there. It’s loaded 15 cloves of garlic: 5 in the meatballs and 10 in the sauce. But don’t worry it being too strong, all that garlic is cooked low and slow to bring out the mild garlicky sweetness we all love. Heaven. Just make sure you have some breath mints on hand ;).
With carbs.
This batch makes about about 45 meatballs and they are begging you to try them with all the carbs. The meatballs are amazing on pasta, pizza or in a cheesy meatball sandwich. But my favourite way to eat these meatballs is straight up, topped with more parmesan and basil and a lot of fresh crusty bread to sop up that garlicky sauce.
Check out the recipe video below for a tutorial on how to make these scrummy meatballs:
Turkey Ricotta Meatballs in Garlicky Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 475g container ricotta cheese
- 1 cup seasoned Italian breadcrumbs
- 1 egg whisked
- ¼ cup packed basil finely chopped
- ¼ cup packed parsley finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small onion finely diced
- 10 garlic cloves crushed and roughly chopped
- 1 tsp crushed chilli flakes
- 1 large jar or can tomato passata (puréed tomatoes)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
- grated parmesan cheese for topping
- basil leaves for topping
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the meatball ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine. Let the mixture chill while your sauce is cooking.
- While the meat mixture is chilling, make the sauce: preheat the oven to 350F.
- Heat a large dutch oven or a heavy oven-safe pot over medium heat.
- Once the pot is hot, add the olive oil and then onion. Season with a pinch of sea salt and sauté until onion is golden, about 15 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the garlic and chilli flakes. Sauté a further 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato passata and chicken broth. Stir to combine.
- Cover and place in the oven for 1 hour.
- After one hour, remove from the oven and stir the sauce.
- Remove the meatball mixture from the fridge.
- Take about 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture, roll it into a ball and drop into the tomato sauce. Repeat with the remaining meat mixture.
- Gently stir the sauce to coat the meatballs, cover and place back in the oven for 1 hour.
- Remove from the oven, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve topped with parmesan and basil leaves.
