Easy Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Basil Sauce

How to make tender ground turkey meatballs cooked in a quick and easy tomato basil sauce. You will love this easy recipe. This recipe has no lengthy cooking times, no baking, and no searing. Simple! Jump to the Tomato Basil Turkey Meatballs Recipe.

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How to Make the Best Ground Turkey Meatballs

These tender turkey meatballs do not last long in our kitchen. The moment one of us turns away, the other quickly steals a meatball, and before we know it, all that’s left is an empty pan.

You will love this easy recipe. There are no lengthy cooking times and no need to bake or sear the meatballs in advance. Instead, we make quick tomato basil sauce — similar to our marinara sauce. After bringing it to a simmer, we carefully drop the meatballs right into the sauce. For baked or seared meatballs, take a look at this easy meatball recipe.

To make the sauce, cook chopped garlic, and crushed red pepper flakes in olive oil, then add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and basil. Bring it to a simmer and allow it to reduce while you make the meatballs.

For the meatballs, we combine lean ground turkey with breadcrumbs, milk, egg, cheese, and herbs. After forming them into balls, we carefully drop them into the simmering sauce. Simple.

For the most tender and light meatballs (using ground turkey, chicken, or beef) you use a light touch when mixing and forming. To help with this, we have two tricks:

• First, combine all the ingredients before adding the ground meat. You’ll see that in our recipe we mix breadcrumbs, milk, an egg, and herbs first. That way, when we add the turkey meat, all we need to do is lightly mix. We do this when making chicken meatballs, turkey burgers, and even meatloaf.
• Second, these meatballs are pretty wet, so the mixture is a bit sticky  when forming the balls. Be gentle when forming into meatballs then after placing them into the sauce, don’t move them for the first 10 minutes of cooking. Once they’ve cooked and firmed up a bit, you can stir them as usual.

Make Ahead Tips

Meatballs are the perfect make-ahead meal. Here are our tips for making them in advance:

Make-ahead sauce: The tomato basil sauce can be made in advance and should last in your refrigerator up to three days and in your freezer for about 3 months. We recommend using freezer-safe glass containers, or double layers of freezer bags to store sauces. To thaw, just leave it overnight in the refrigerator.

Make-ahead meatballs: Arrange shaped and uncooked meatballs in a dish or on a baking sheet, without touching. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day.

Freezing uncooked meatballs: Prepare the recipe through the shaping step. Arrange them on a foil-lined baking sheet and freeze until solid. Place the frozen meatballs in a freezer container or freezer bag, and freeze for up to 1 month. Thaw meatballs in the refrigerator overnight before cooking.

Freezing cooked meatballs: Let the cooked meatballs cool completely, then transfer to a freezer container or food-safe bag. Freeze for up to 1 month. Frozen meatballs can be thawed overnight or reheated directly from the freezer. Reheat them in a simmering sauce for 10 to 15 minutes or in a warm oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

More Meatball Recipes

• The Best Swedish Meatballs — This recipe makes juicy and flavorful meatballs with a creamy, rich, and crave-worthy sauce.
• Tomato Basil Slow Cooker Chicken Meatballs — made with lean ground chicken, parmesan cheese, parsley, and oregano, and then cooked in a simple garlic and basil tomato sauce.
• Goat Cheese Stuffed Baked Chicken Meatballs — I love that these easy meatballs are baked — it makes them so easy.
• Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs with Spinach Pesto — How to make extra flavorful turkey meatballs tossed with an easy homemade spinach pesto.

Recipe updated, originally posted January 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne