Turkey Pesto Meatballs

I made another recipe from Weelicious, and once again, it was a hit. The Engineer and the Little Prince both love meatballs, and I think that their popularity at the table makes me love them too, even though I didn’t often think to make them before. The only problem I ran into was that the meatballs were undercooked when I followed directions, so I upped the temperature and left them in there longer until my thermometer indicated that they were done. A quick search in the comments on the blog revealed that others ran into the same issue. I fixed it in my version below – my way worked for me, but another reader suggested baking at 400 °F for 20 minutes. If you want to make these dairy-free, use dairy-free pesto and either substitute nutritional yeast for the parmesan or omit it altogether. For the tomato sauce, store-bought is fine; I’d suggest doctoring it with some herbs and spices if necessary. I served these with orzo.

1 ¼ lbs. lean ground turkey
¼ cup pesto
¼ cup breadcrumbs
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp. salt
2 cups tomato sauce (such as marinara)

Preheat oven to 350 °F (see note above).

Place all the ingredients (except for the tomato sauce) in a bowl and using your hands, combine until everything is incorporated.

Using about 1 tablespoon of the mixture per meatball, roll into balls and place on a plate.

Pour the marinara sauce into a 9”x9” pan (I think I used a 9”x13” pan, actually) and top with the meatballs.

Cover the baking pan with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes. Uncover, increase the temperature to 450 °F and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.