Growing up my family was friends with a family that owned a restaurant. Italian as italian can be! We would go over Christmas Eve to the restaurant and they would have the seven kinds of fish (sorry I prefer my spaghetti to be calamare free! eek!) But, the smells and the sauces and everything was always fantastic. My meatballs are wannabe Italian because no meatball, sauce, alfredo, noodle, pizza, or anything Italian that ever comes from my kitchen will ever be as good as Norma’s was. Ever. And I cheat a little bit -lol- shhh we won’t tell anyone.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and start preparing the meatballs (prep only takes about 15 minutes or so)

• 2 pounds of ground turkey
• plain breadcrumbs (the kind in a can *shhh*) I don’t measure them, I just dump a bunch in until I think it’s enough. More will make your meatballs a little softer, less will make them a little more firm.
• garlic, two big heaping spoonfuls crushed garlic (don’t tell hubby sometimes I use three!)
• two choices for seasoning, the premixed Italian seasoning, or use oregano, parsley etc.. to taste more or less depending on how much you like. Some people like less parsley and more garlic (me!)
• a few drops of gravy master .. drops! be very careful with stuff, too much will taste awful
• packet of lipton onion soup mix (cause who the heck wants to chop onions!)

Put in oven for about 30 -45 minutes. Smallish meatballs will take less time than hefty ones obviously. If you’re making gigantic meatballs that look more like mini meatloaf you may need to bake longer than 45 minutes, but I don’t think I’ve had any take over an hour.You can put them in the crock pot with a jar of sauce (another reason we’re wannabe, my sauce is just plain ole Prego!) or you can simmer on the stove in a jar of sauce, either way they come out tender and yummy. I usually throw mine in the crockpot when we’re going to have a busy day. Then we can either throw together some buns and cheese for subs, or boil some noodles for spaghetti.

This recipe freezes well too. Fill up small containers or single ziploc bags for fast meatball subs! Just microwave and ta-da! Way better than ordering one from the local take out place. Or freeze a big container for fast spaghetti dinner on another busy night. Sometimes I’ll fix up a double batch just so I can freeze some for later.

technorati tags: italian food, italian meatballs, meatball recipe, recipes, kitchen, italian, crock pot, freezer recipe