Spaghetti With Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Epi Curious's Note:

This recipe came from GOOP.com, Gwyneth Paltrow's new lifestyle website. She is showing her Martha Stewart side as her recipes are quite good and easy to put together. This one is especially good with the addition of fennel seeds to the homemade tomato sauce, which doesn't overpower but definitely bumps it up to a new level. We used whole wheat pasta and it was delicious.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 4

Yield: 4.0

• 2 tablespoons olive oil , plus 2 additional tablespoons
• 1 yellow onion , large, very finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves , peeled and minced
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• coarse sea salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 28 ounces whole tomatoes, pulsed in a food processor (or crushed by hand) or 28 ounces blender with their juice (or crushed by hand)
• ½ cup panko
• ½ lemon , zest only
• ¼ cup flat leaf parsley , finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon thyme , fresh, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon rosemary , fresh, finely chopped
• 1 lb ground turkey (preferably dark meat)
• 1 egg
• 1 lb spaghetti , cooked just before serving
• ¼ cup basil leaves , fresh, roughly torn

Directions:

1. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about eight minutes sweating it without giving it too much color. When it's soft, add the garlic and fennel seeds and season generously with salt and pepper (about a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper should do). Saute for an additional three or four minutes. Remove and reserve half of this onion mixture in a large mixing bowl. Add the tomatoes and their juice to the remaining mixture in the pot, turn the heat to low and simmer while you make the meatballs. be sure to put a little water in the tomato sauce can and swish it around and add it to the pot (don't want to waste a bit!).
2. To make the meatballs, combine the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, parsley, thyme and rosemary with the reserved onion mixture. Add the turkey and egg and mush it all with your hands (the best tool for this job) just until everything is well-combined; don't over mix. Form the mixture into 1-1/2 inch balls with your hands (of course you can make them whatever size you like). Heat the last two tablespoons of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Making sure not to overcrowd the pan, brown the meatballs (should take about five minutes). Put the browned meatballs into the simmering tomato sauce and let them cook, shaking the pot occasionally to roll the meatballs around, for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour and a half. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Serve with spaghetti and the torn basil.