One From The Vault

This week's recipe: Turkey-Ricotta Meatballs

Back in the day, one of the best perks of my book publishing job (aside from free books) was being on the comp lists for all kinds of periodicals. And I was on *tons* of them, thanks to the wide range of books that my company published and that we sometimes advertised. By wide range of books, I mean…really wide. Deepak Chopra to Martha Stewart to Ina Garten to Suzanne Somers to Suze Orman to Gene Simmons to Derek Jeter to the 4-Hour Workweek guy (who was legit bonkers, for the curious). Thrillers, cookbooks, health and wellness titles, literary fiction, business books, celebrity memoirs, how-to manuals, beach reads, biographies, narrative nonfiction, crafting books, romances, travel guides. Bestsellers by the leader of a merry band of middle-aged Southern belles called The Sweet Potato Queens; a cantankerous couple from Shaker Heights, Ohio (RIP Ralph, and happy 97th birthday to Terry!) who were also famed antiques and collectibles experts; and a guy who predicted the world would end on 5/5/2000 (spoiler alert). My cubby in the office mail stop* overflowed with magazines and newspapers on a weekly basis and my coworkers and I would rifle through the pile in a quest for lunchtime reading material. But because I was sneaky that way, I had certain publications sent home so I could keep them all to myself, and those magazines were all food and cooking related.

* For the kids: a mail stop was a shelf filled with slots assigned to individual people. The mail staff would hand-deliver interoffice envelopes**, mail, and periodicals every day, sometimes twice a day. Imagine!

** Also for the kids: An interoffice envelope was one in which a colleague would enclose a printed memo or report, hand-write the name/floor/phone extension of the recipient on the front (crossing out the recipient on the line above), and put it into the outgoing mail basket at the mail stop. Interoffice envelopes were very climate-conscious, when you think about it.

While perusing my magazines I would cut out recipes that looked good and then catalog them in a set of 3-ring binders that I organized by types of food. I still have the binders, and this week I dove deep to find some recipes that I clipped way back when and that I still use today.

The above recipe is one I ripped it out of an issue of the late, great Cooking Light. I need to pause and pour one out for Cooking Light, which ceased publication seven years ago. I borrowed copies of Cooking Light from the library (!) when it first came out, and I faithfully subscribed after my sweet comp subscription ended. I gasped when I saw the cover of that final December 2018 issue, with a delectable-looking chocolate cake on the front that almost distracted me from “THE FAREWELL ISSUE” emblazoned underneath. Sigh.

I have been making Cooking Light’s Turkey-Ricotta Meatballs for years now—I should actually call them Delia’s Turkey-Ricotta Meatballs, as they are her fave. These meatballs come together simply and it’s easy to make a huge batch of them to freeze for later, which is why I doubled the recipe ages ago. They’re great on their own, as they have a lot of flavor thanks to the basil and my addition of parm and red pepper; they’re also terrific in tomato sauce with pasta or mixed with saucy rice and veggies.

Turkey-Ricotta Meatballs (adapted from Cooking Light)

Makes approximately 36 meatballs

• 2 pounds 93% lean ground turkey

• 2 eggs

• ¾ cup part-skim ricotta cheese

• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs

• ½ cup chopped fresh basil

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

• Dash of Aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes (optional)

• Olive oil, for frying

The original recipe calls for ground turkey breast, which I find to be a little too dry to use here so I’ve substituted with 93% lean ground turkey. Since 93% lean has some fat in it, I lessened the amount of ricotta from the original recipe, which was probably included to add some moisture to the fat-free turkey breast.

If you only have whole milk ricotta, it will work fine; remember, this recipe is from Cooking Light, after all. ;-)

I sometimes use a combination of parm and pecorino cheeses depending on what I have on hand. I also throw in some chopped fresh oregano if I have any.

Preheat the oven to 375. Combine the ground turkey with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together, either by hand or with a large spoon or fork. Fill a small bowl with water; wet your palms with the water and shape the turkey mixture into 36 or so small meatballs; set them aside on a plate.

Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 12 or so meatballs to the pan, and brown them on all sides. (Don’t crowd the meatballs together too closely, as this will prevent you from turning them easily.) When done, remove them from the skillet and drain them on a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat with two more batches of meatballs (adding new olive oil each time) until they are all browned and drained.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and place the browned meatballs on it, spacing them apart from each other. Bake for 20 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the baking sheet and serve.

To freeze: Let the meatballs cool to room temperature, then place them on either a clean baking sheet or remove the foil or parchment from the original baking sheet and put the meatballs back on it. Freeze for about an hour; when hardened, you can store the meatballs in an airtight container or in a plastic freezer bag. They can be reheated in the microwave or oven.