At the market I picked up some organic ground turkey. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do with it. Some thoughts included turkey tacos, turkey burgers, or meatballs. Ron suggested spaghetti and meatballs, which we hadn’t had in years, so I went for it. This is how I created my turkey thyme meatballs.

There’s something tastier and more Spring-like about a turkey meatball versus ones made of veal, beef, pork, or combinations thereof. There’s definitely less fat with an all-turkey meatball, which is always a good move. Turkey meatballs are lighter and, to my mind, allow for more experimentation with different spices and herbs.

I made the tomato sauce based on my lasagna recipe, but tweaked it a bit. I made a little more than half of the sauce from that recipe and added in six fresh plum tomatoes (which Ron crushed with his hands), two cubanelle peppers, two tablespoons of tomato paste, one red onion, one can of tomato puree and three to four cups of lukewarm water.

Since I am a lover of quinoa noodles, I made quinoa spaghetti for myself and regular linguini for Ron.

Ingredients:

• 1 package organic ground turkey
• 1/4 fennel bulb, trimmed and chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of gluten-free flour (or regular flour) for dusting
• a pinch or two of sea salt and fresh ground pepper

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