Mini Turkey Meatballs With Gnocchi and Tomato Sauce

Submitted by Stacee R.

"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

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place turkey in a large bowl with grill seasoning and fennel seeds.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Drizzle some olive oil over the bowl.
6. 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.
7. Bring a pot of water to a boil for the gnocchi.
8. 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.
9. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and season with salt and pepper.
10. Drop gnocchi into pot of boiling water and cook 5 minutes (or to package directions.).
11. Stir remaining basil into sauce to wilt it.
12. 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.
13. Serve with bread.
14. Note: The tomato sauce is very basic. Feel free to add additional spices.

Reviews

[Pinay0618]

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!

 

[Zanni]

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).

 

[CIndytc]

I only made the turkey meatballs and used the Rosa Sauce from # 61083 with Gnocchi....was fabulous, they paired together perfectly...

 

[bricookie55]

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!

 

[ksduffster]

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.