Greek Meatballs- Revisited

My daughter loves meatballs. Whenever I ask her to guess what is for dinner- inevitably, she guesses spaghetti and meatballs.

We had family coming over and I asked my daughter for suggestions for a meal- of course she asked for meatballs. She requested the Greek ones I had made a while ago. I don’t like to repeat a recipe if I don’t have to .. so I started thinking about how to make these meatballs different from the ones I made before. While looking at the previous recipe, I realized I did not use any kalamata olives. That was it- I decided to add some into the meat mixture. The combination of the feta and olives made the dish deliciously salty and nutty.

It was a big hit. I served it with spaghetti, a big green salad and garlic bread. My daughter thought it was a perfect meal…

• 1 pound ground turkey (dark meat)
• 1 medium shallot, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
• ½ cup kalamata olives
• ½ cup parsley, chopped

Add the shallot, garlic, oregano, olives and parsley into a food processor and process till smooth.
Take the mixture out into a medium bowl.

• ½ cup panko crumbs
• ¼ cup milk

Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 15 minutes.

• 1 egg
• ½ cup feta, crumbled
• 2 teaspoons salt

Add the soaked breadcrumbs, egg, cheese, and salt into the shallot mixture. Mix well and add to the ground turkey. Mix with both hands. Keep aside.

• 3 cups marinara sauce

Heat the sauce in a large saucepan.

In the meantime form meatballs (the mixture makes about 14 meatballs). Drop the meatballs into the simmering sauce as you form them. Once all the meatballs are in the saucepan, simmer covered for 15 minutes. Check for seasonings and serve with spaghetti.