Mini Turkey Meatballs With Gnocchi and Tomato Sauce
"I am a huge fan of gnocchi and this is a favorite recipe which uses them. Courtesy of Rachael Ray."
- Ready In:
- 25mins
- Ingredients:
- 16
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- salt
- 1 1⁄2 lbs ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon McCormick's Montreal Brand steak seasoning
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1⁄4 cup sun-dried tomato (not the ones in oil)
- 1 cup fresh basil, divided
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus some to drizzle
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- pepper
- 1 lb gnocchi
- 1⁄2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
- crusty bread
directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place turkey in a large bowl with grill seasoning and fennel seeds.
- Pile sun-dried tomatoes on top of each other in small stacks then slice into thin strips. Coarsely chop the thin strips and add to bowl.
- Stack the basil leaves together then roll them up into a log. Shred the basil by thinly slicing the log. Add half the basil to the bowl.
- Drizzle some olive oil over the bowl.
- Mix turkey together, roll into 1 1/2-inch meatballs and arrange on a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until firm and lightly golden.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil for the gnocchi.
- While the water is coming to a boil, heat a large skillet over medium heat. To the hot skillet, add 2 T olive oil, garlic, onion and red pepper flakes. Cook until tender, about 5-6 minutes.
- Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper.
- Drop gnocchi into pot of boiling water and cook 5 minutes (or to package directions.).
- Stir remaining basil into sauce to wilt it.
- Drain gnocchi and arrange on a platter. Remove meatballs from oven and add to gnocchi, equally distributing them. Sprinkle cheese over the meatballs and gnocchi then top with sauce.
- Serve with bread.
- Note: The tomato sauce is very basic. Feel free to add additional spices.
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Reviews
-
We enjoyed this very much, although I did not use fresh basil. I substituted basil paste from the produce section and used maybe 3 tablespoons total. Next time I will add a bit more fennel to the meatballs, as we were wishing for a little more of a pronounced flavor there. Thanks for sharing Rachel's wonderful recipe! -
This was pretty good! I improvised a bit. I couldn't find fresh basil so I used the paste from the produce section. I think I used too much of it in the meatballs because they came out a bit sausage-y tasting. I didn't have fennel so I threw in some Italian blend spices. For the tomato sauce I used 5 medium fresh tomatoes in place of the canned, and in addition to the tomato sauce I threw in about 3/4 cup of leftover spaghetti sauce I had. I couldn't find gnocchi in my town at all, so I got it online at igourmet.com. Now that I know what it tastes like I'll try to make it fresh myself sometime. I never had it before and it was pretty good. All in all this was a pretty easy recipe, and except for the gnocchi it had some pretty basic ingredients I thought(compared to other Rachel Ray recipes). -
I only made the turkey meatballs and used the Rosa Sauce from # 61083 with Gnocchi....was fabulous, they paired together perfectly... -
I used this recipe tonight and used my own homemade tomato sauce. Instead of roasting the meatballs, I put them in a skillet until all sides were browned, added the sauce to the skillet, and simmered until the gnocchi was done. The meatballs were delicious, and this was such a simple meal that I could see this becoming a regular in our house. Thanks! -
These meatballs were very tasty! I used 1/4 tsp. anise seed instead of the fennel and dried basil instead of the fresh (didn't measure that, but I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near 1 cup's worth. My, that Rachael loves her basil, eh?) The recipe makes a lot of sauce for us since we don't particularly like our pasta drowning in sauce. But I froze what was left so I can use it in the future. For the sauce, I added extra red pepper flakes (A LOT of extra red pepper flakes! Ooops!), a little rosemary and a little oregano. I will probably make at least the meatballs again, but the whole thing was so easy to put together that I don't know if I could justify using a jarred sauce instead of the one here, when they probably take about the same amount of time to heat through. I will probably try other types of pasta, though, because gnocchi isn't my favorite, although it worked really well here.
Tweaks
-
This was pretty good! I improvised a bit. I couldn't find fresh basil so I used the paste from the produce section. I think I used too much of it in the meatballs because they came out a bit sausage-y tasting. I didn't have fennel so I threw in some Italian blend spices. For the tomato sauce I used 5 medium fresh tomatoes in place of the canned, and in addition to the tomato sauce I threw in about 3/4 cup of leftover spaghetti sauce I had. I couldn't find gnocchi in my town at all, so I got it online at igourmet.com. Now that I know what it tastes like I'll try to make it fresh myself sometime. I never had it before and it was pretty good. All in all this was a pretty easy recipe, and except for the gnocchi it had some pretty basic ingredients I thought(compared to other Rachel Ray recipes).
-
These meatballs were very tasty! I used 1/4 tsp. anise seed instead of the fennel and dried basil instead of the fresh (didn't measure that, but I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near 1 cup's worth. My, that Rachael loves her basil, eh?) The recipe makes a lot of sauce for us since we don't particularly like our pasta drowning in sauce. But I froze what was left so I can use it in the future. For the sauce, I added extra red pepper flakes (A LOT of extra red pepper flakes! Ooops!), a little rosemary and a little oregano. I will probably make at least the meatballs again, but the whole thing was so easy to put together that I don't know if I could justify using a jarred sauce instead of the one here, when they probably take about the same amount of time to heat through. I will probably try other types of pasta, though, because gnocchi isn't my favorite, although it worked really well here.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Stacee R.
United States
