Featured Recipe
Taran's Marinara and Turkey Meatballs
This marinara recipe great served alone on any pasta, used as a sauce for pizza, served with meat of your choice, or even for eggplant parmesan. The marinara itself is meat and gluten free and this recipe pairs it with oversized meatballs made with turkey, but you can use the ground meat of your choice. Note that the meatballs are given a little healthy boost by adding collagen!
Marinara Recipe (serves 2-4 people)
(double the recipe using with the meatball recipe below)
- 1/4 c. diced onion
- 1/4 c. diced celery
- 1/2 c. diced carrot
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp.cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
- 1 tbsp. tomato paste
- 2 cans of tomato sauce (15 oz)
- 4 tsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. prosecco white wine vinegar
- 1 star anise
- salt
In a large pot, preferably an enameled cast iron pot, saute the diced veggies in olive oil until soft. Stir frequently as you are not trying to caramelize the veggies.
Once softened add the herbs and spices and stir frequently for about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and garlic and combine all into a thick paste. Cook for about 2 minutes and stir frequently.
Add the tomato sauce, sugar, vinegar, and star anise and stir. Stirring constantly bring the sauce up to heat until it starts to bubble then reduce heat to low and cook for 50 minutes to an hour. Stir frequently. Add salt to taste and REMOVE the piece of star anise.
After the sauce is cooked remove from heat and blend in a food processor until smooth.
Turkey Meatball Recipe (makes approx. 15 large meatballs)
- 3 lbs. ground turkey (85%/15%lean)
- 1/4 c. cooked, frozen spinach (chopped)
- 1/4 c. fresh parmesan cheese (finely chopped)
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 5 tbsp. minced yellow onion
- 1 scoop of unflavored collagen
- 3 heaping tbsp. of finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 3 tbsp. gluten free panko crumbs
- 1 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs
- olive oil for cooking
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and combine thoroughly. Note when using turkey the mixture will be hard to handle and a little hard to keep the meatballs to stay in form.
Using a 1/3 c. ice cream scoop, scoop out the meat and roll into a ball. Cook the the meatballs in a large pot with olive oil and allow the meat balls to brown on each side. Once all meatballs are browned set aside on a plate.
In a clean pot add the sauce and meatballs and cook on low with a lid on the pot or 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally