Florentine Meatballs

Sorry for the delay, life got busy there for a couple of days.

Here's the next post about food that Mom and I made on our marathon baking weekend. And guess what - this recipe doesn't involve butter! Oh wait, let me check that and make sure. Well, there's a little bit of butter, but not much.

This recipe is from Rachael Ray. The original recipe is here. These turkey meatballs turned out really good. We doubled the recipe so that we could freeze some.

Here's what you need:
1 box frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave
1 1/3 pound (1 package) ground turkey breast
1 medium onion, finely chopped, divided
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups milk, divided
3/4 cup bread crumbs, 3 handfuls
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 palm fulls
Coarse salt and black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 (10-ounce) sack shredded provolone or blend of Italian cheeses, available on dairy aisle
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wring defrosted spinach dry in a clean kitchen towel. Place turkey in a bowl and make a well in the middle of it. Add the spinach, all but 3 tablespoons of the onion, all of the garlic, 1 large egg, about 1/4 cup milk, bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form into 12 large balls and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Arrange on a nonstick cookie sheet and roast 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
While balls are in the oven, heat a small sauce pot over medium heat. Add a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. Melt butter, add remaining finely chopped onion and cook 2 minutes then whisk in flour. Cook flour 1 minute, then whisk in 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 cup stock. Bring liquid up to a boil then stir in shredded provolone or blended Italian cheeses. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg, turn heat to lowest setting.
Place 3 balls on dinner plates and top with sauce, garnish with parsley.

We actually made our meatballs smaller than what was suggested - so that we would have more. Rominal and Bailey liked these as well.

Here's our finished product.



And I froze several bags of the meatballs in my vacuum bag thingy. The other night I pulled out one bag and let it defrost, then served them with spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. It was a great easy dinner.



We would certainly recommend this recipe, despite the lack of butter involved.