It’s a meatballin’ kind of day.
Too much?
Okay, reeling it back in for a moment for a real time chat about my meatball obsession. As many of you may or may not know, I normally do not eat beef or pork. It’s a rare occasion that I’ll have a cheeseburger or ham; usually only on vacations or holidays.
Sometimes I miss it, but I’ve become more of a chicken, turkey and seafood kind of girl. To crush my meat cravings, I switched to lean turkey a while ago and have been popping some badass meatballs out of the oven ever since. See?
I think many people underestimate the deliciousness of turkey or have the misconception that it can be dry. Well today I’m here to show you that it is possible to make tender and juicy meatballs FULL of flavor. All you need is the right amount of spices, a little parmesan and herbs!
Let’s get to it.
How to make these turkey meatballs:
- First mix the turkey, egg, basil, spices, breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese together in a large bowl.
- Next, use a cookie scoop to drop meatballs onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should get around 12 BIG meatballs. If you’d like smaller ones you can make them into 16.
- Pop those bad boys in the oven at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Hello protein!
Serve over rigatoni (or any kind of pasta you like) and my favorite easy jazzed up chunky tomato basil sauce. Sprinkle extra parmesan on top and some basil ribbons if you’re fancy like that.
Basically the easiest dinner ever. Plus it’s incredibly filling. Serve with a side salad for a well-rounded meal. If you make this be sure to snap a photo and tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram so I can see your creation.
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Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Baked Turkey Parmesan Meatballs with Rigatoni and Chunky Tomato Basil Sauce
Ingredients
- For the meatballs:
- 1 pound lean ground turkey (aim for 94%)
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs (use gluten free breadcrumbs if you’d like)
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons fresh minced basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- For the sauce:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 cups fire roasted tomatoes (about 2 - 15 oz cans)
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons fresh minced basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- Optional if you like heat: 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
- For the pasta:
- 8 oz whole grain or gluten free uncooked rigatoni
- Extras:
- Basil, for garnish
- Extra Parmesan, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix together turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, oregano, cumin, garlic powder and cayenne pepper until well combined.
- Use a cookie scoop to drop meatballs on prepared baking pan; you will get about 12 meatballs. If you want smaller meatballs, use a small cookie scoop to get around 16. Bake for 15 minutes.
- While meatballs are baking, you can start the sauce: Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven or a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 min. Next add in tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, basil, oregano, Italian seasoning and cayenne pepper (if you’d like some heat).
- Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer for 20-30 minutes. Or until sauce thickens up a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Next add cooked meatballs to the sauce and leave on low heat until ready to serve.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, then divide pasta evenly among four bowls. Top with ½ cup tomato sauce and 3 big meatballs. Garnish with extra parmesan and basil. Enjoy! Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
{Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Go Veggie! foods, however all opinions are my own. Thanks for continuing to support AK and the brand I work with.}
I have made this so many times now, I can’t even count! So so good. Always love Ambitious Kitchen recipes!
I love your post because I’m a food Lover and I travel for food too. Pakistan is the best spot for food sweetheart’s model. Karachi has the best biryani and Naharis, Best restaurants in DHA Lahore is Café Romansu. It is dedicated to providing quality meals that are of the highest quality and taste to all foodies. Lahore is known for the inexpensive food and all over Pakistan, we get a great deal of assortments of food sources. I like your blog as it is all around depicted. For food arranges everywhere.
Yet another winner! I used coconut flour to keep the meatballs GF and served over Banza chickpea rigatoni. I didn’t have as much basil as I thought unfortunately, so I didn’t have enough for the tomato sauce, but it was still absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
yum! I made these and they are amazing! Used ground beef instead of turkey and it came out perfect
I followed the baked meatballs portion of this recipe and wow these turned out amazing. I’ve baked meatballs before and they have never turned out this good! These are perfect to make on a Sunday and use for dinners throughout the week. I am making these again for sure!!
So happy you tried and loed this recipe, Shannon! SO great as leftovers, right?!
I made these meat balls last night to go with Mac-n-Cheese and they were a hit! So easy to make and so much flavor, I did let the meatball mix sit in the refrigerator for an hour so that the flavors would marry nicely together. My hubby and young men said they were so good and they want me to make them again soon!
Thank you for always having such great recipes!
Aw yay I’m so glad that everyone loved them!! Thanks so much for the review, Gayle 🙂
Fantastic! I’ve made it for my 2 year old son with both turkey and ground beef and he loves it! I omit the cayenne pepper and it’s still very tasty. Sometimes I serve over spinach rather than pasta and it’s delicious. Great recipe Monique!
Amazing! So happy to hear that Emily 🙂 Love these over spinach too!
These look delicious! I don’t like Veggie. Any suggestions how I could adjust the recipe to make it without? Thanks!
Hi Dustin! If you don’t need a dairy-free cheese feel free to use a regular sprinkled parmesan cheese.
Such a stunning looking mouth watering dish!! Yumm.
I’m the same way.. typically we don’t even eat any meat but when we do it’s normally only lean meat. I hate when people underestimate lean meat… whenever I get a craving for meat, I always whip up some mean turkey burgers. These meatballs looks FABULOUS! I’m totally putting this into my lean meat repertoire.
This looks like a very homely, comforting and inviting dish. So perfect for the cool weather right now too!
This looks fantastic!
Dude. I’m all about those meatballs.
MEATBALLS!! This sounds so good!
You are killing me with this Monique, it looks incredible!
Girl’s going savory and I’m loving itttt! Dinner this weekend? 😉
I am ALL about a good turkey meatball. However, I have had the terrible experience of a DRY meatball before. But, with all that saucey goodness, I have no fears about these delicious little guys! It is definitely a meatballin’ kinda Monday! 😉 Pinned!
This look SO FAB. #alltheprotein. Pinned!