Mom’s Famous Spaghetti and Meatballs

My Mom is famous for her homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

Or at least, we think she should be famous for her spaghetti and meatballs. Legend has it this recipe was the very first meal she cooked for my dad while they were dating, and he has been smitten ever since.

Truth!

I know this recipe is absolutely divine with ground beef meatballs, but I thought it would be fun to try with ground turkey, too. Teacher Man openly questioned my sanity at first – would this be considered heresy with my mother, he asked? – but he needn’t have worried. 

We had the best of both worlds – a batch of beef meatballs and a batch of turkey meatballs, all smothered in my mother’s fabulous spaghetti sauce! And yes, you can really #SwitchToTurkey and be perfectly happy, I promise! 

Thanks, Mom, for allowing me to share your famous spaghetti and meatballs recipe with the world. I’ll continue to make this with both ground beef and ground turkey – it’s simply an amazing meatball recipe, no matter how you shake it up.

(But try turkey – just for me. Pretty please?)

Enjoy!

Lara

Mom’s Famous Spaghetti and Meatballs

Marilyn Ginsburg

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Ingredients

  

Meatballs

• 1 16-ounce package JENNIE-O® Extra Lean Ground Turkey Breast
• 4 slices of white bread
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon onion grated
• 1 small clove garlic minced finely
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Spaghetti Sauce

• 1 cup onion chopped
• 1 small clove garlic minced
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 – 15 ounce can tomato puree
• 2 – 15 ounce cans tomato sauce
• 2 – 6 oounce cans tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

For serving

• Spaghetti noodles 16 ounce box, cooked and drained
• Parmesan cheese grated for topping

Instructions

 

For the meatballs

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
• In a small bowl, add enough water to bread slices to cover; let stand for 2 minutes.
• Remove bread slices and squeeze out excess water.
• In a medium bowl, combine bread with ground turkey and remaining ingredients; toss lightly with fork to combine.
• With moistened hands (or an ice cream scoop), shape meat mixture into meatballs.
• One pound of ground turkey makes approximately 24 meatballs.
• Bake meatballs in oven for approximately 20-22 minutes, turning over at the halfway mark.
• Set aside in the refrigerator.

For the spaghetti sauce

• Heat olive oil in a pan.
• Add onion and garlic, and cook for about 5-6 minutes until onion is softened and translucent.
• Add tomato puree, tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, sugar, salt, oregano basil, parsley and pepper.
• Stir and simmer, uncovered, for 1-2 hours.
• Add the meatballs and simmer for 1 hour longer.
• Serve with hot spaghetti and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Notes

If you happen to find yourself with one 28-ounce can of tomato puree and one 15-ounce can of tomato sauce instead of what the recipe calls for above, let me tell you that you’ll be completely fine!
You can also brown the meatballs in a skillet in vegetable oil (instead of baking).
I used extra lean ground turkey for this recipe because that’s what I had on hand; however, you can use regular lean turkey which has a little more fat content and would be my first choice recommendation.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!