We made these Italian-style turkey meatballs from NYT Cooking: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018723-turkey-meatballs-in-tomato-sauce?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share.
Our modifications: first, we doubled the recipe. In the doubled recipe, we also reduced the salt in the meatball mixture to 2 tsp (from 1 Tbsp).
Second, to manage sodium in the marinara sauce, we combined 32 oz (4 cups) Rao’s marinara sauce with 16 oz no-salt tomato sauce. We poured the sauce mixture into the Ultimate pan. We later balanced out the sauce’s viscosity and flavor profile with 1 Tbsp water, 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp sugar, and 1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce.
Third, consistent with the comments to the NYT Cooking recipe, we tried baking the meatballs instead of pan frying them. How we did it: we preheated the oven to 450, lined three rimmed baking sheets with nonstick foil, and then drizzled 1 tsp canola oil and used a paper towel to distribute the oil on the foil-lined sheet. We then measured out 2 Tbsp of meat mixture per meatball, hand-rolled, and placed on the foil-lined baking sheet. We baked the meatballs for approx. 20 mins, flipping over each meatball midway. (We found that only 1/3 of the meatballs browned at all.) Then we switched the oven to the broiler on Low to brown the tops of the meatballs.
Finally, we placed the meatballs in the marinara / tomato sauce mixture. We then followed the recipe’s instructions to simmer the meatballs, covered, for 20 mins.
We served the meatballs over rigatoni (which we cooked and drained separately) and garnished with julienned basil. (Dec. 2025)
Cooking Adventures 