Summertime Turkey Meatballs

5 from 12 votes

These Summer Turkey Meatballs with Angel Hair are packed with garlic, Parmesan, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh herbs, then tossed with burst cherry tomatoes for an easy summer dinner.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: people

Author: Gaby Dalkin

Equipment

Ingredients

For the meatballs

1 pound 85% ground dark meat turkey
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 shallot finely diced
¼ cup chives finely chopped
¼ cup shredded parmesan
¼ cup finely diced sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
¼ cup olive oil

For the pasta

1 lb angel hair
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 pints cherry tomatoes halved
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

Transfer the ground turkey to a large bowl, and add in garlic, shallots, chives, parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Using your hands, incorporate everything together. Make sure everything is evenly incorporated without over mixing the ground turkey.
Form the mixture into small meatballs, just smaller than a golf ball.
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottom skillet over medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add half of the meatballs and sauté for 3-4 minutes, turning every so often to brown the outside and then continue cooking through for about 6 minutes more. Once the meatballs are cooked, remove them from the oil and repeat the process with the remaining meatballs.
In a large skillet, heat the 4 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Add the cherry tomatoes and saute until they start to fall apart. Add the chopped garlic and season with salt and pepper.
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and combine all the elements into a summer meatball pasta.

Notes

Use 85% dark meat ground turkey, not lean white meat. Dark meat turkey has a higher fat content, which keeps the meatballs moist and gives them actual flavor. Lean ground turkey will produce a dry, dense meatball that no amount of sauce can save.
Chop the garlic and shallot as finely as possible before mixing into the meatball. Large chunks of raw alliums will not cook through fully inside a meatball in the time it takes to brown the outside. Finely chopped pieces distribute evenly and cook all the way through without leaving harsh raw spots.
Drain the sun-dried tomatoes before dicing them. Sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil carry a lot of excess moisture and oil that can throw off the texture of your meatball mixture. Pat them dry or let them drain on a paper towel before chopping.
Mix the meatball ingredients by hand and stop the moment everything looks combined. Overworking ground turkey activates the proteins and creates a tight, rubbery texture. A light hand keeps the meatballs tender and helps them hold together without becoming dense.
Form the meatballs slightly smaller than a golf ball and keep them consistent in size. Uniform meatballs cook at the same rate, so you won't have some overcooked and some underdone in the same batch. Smaller meatballs also brown more efficiently in a skillet without needing to finish in the oven.
Make sure the oil is fully hot before adding the meatballs to the skillet. Adding meatballs to oil that hasn't come up to temperature causes them to steam and stick rather than sear. Hot oil creates an immediate crust that locks in moisture and gives you that brown exterior.
Cook the meatballs in two batches and resist the urge to crowd the pan. Crowding drops the pan temperature and traps steam, which prevents browning entirely. Two separate batches ensure each meatball gets proper contact with the hot surface.
Let the cherry tomatoes cook until they actually collapse and release their liquid before adding the garlic. Adding garlic too early when the pan is still dry risks burning it before the tomatoes release enough moisture to create a sauce. Waiting until the tomatoes start to break down gives the garlic something to cook in without scorching.
Salt your pasta water aggressively before cooking the angel hair. Angel hair is a thin pasta that cooks in under three minutes, which means it has very little time to absorb seasoning. Properly salted water is the only window you have to season the pasta itself from the inside out.
Pull the angel hair out of the water 30 seconds before the package says it's done. Angel hair continues cooking from residual heat after it leaves the boiling water, and it goes from al dente to mushy very quickly. Pulling it early and tossing it immediately in the tomato sauce lets it finish cooking without going soft.
Toss everything together in the tomato skillet rather than plating separately. Combining the pasta, meatballs, and sauce in the same pan over low heat for 60 seconds allows the pasta to absorb the tomato juices and lets the flavors meld into a cohesive dish rather than sitting in separate components on the plate.
Finish the plated dish with extra shredded parmesan and a pinch of red pepper flakes right before serving. The parmesan in the meatball mixture melts and disappears during cooking, so adding it on top at the end gives you that sharp, salty finish that reads as parmesan. The fresh red pepper flakes also have more aroma and heat than ones that have been cooked down in the sauce.

Nutrition (estimated)