Sitzfleisch - Double Duty Tiny Turkey Meatballs

I was spending the day at home, cooking and watching TV all over the airwaves.  So cool to watch Sara Moulton cooking again on public television.  Not that I could sit still long enough to watch her complete even one of the three recipes she knocked out. including that risotto with duck confit and duck cracklings.  Okay, oven risotto made no darn sense, though, because regular risotto made on top of the stove is really pretty easy.  But the duck confit set my heart aflutter, and since I might want to order boneless duck breast from Maple Leaf Farms in the very near future, I might as well throw a couple of confit duck legs into the mix.

For a while, nothing gets accomplished. I sit down, I stand up, I go into the kitchen, I sit down, I watch TV, I jump up, I go upstairs, I come downstairs, I forget what I went upstairs for, I go back into the kitchen, I talk to myself, I sit down, and over and over again.  I change topics in the middle of a conversation.  I start a new topic which is actually a continuation of something we talked about 4 days ago.  In Yiddish, we call my problem "sitzfleisch".  Here in the good old USA, we call it ADD - attention deficit disorder.  I call it the Gracie Allen Syndrome, and - hey, is that a chicken?  No, actually it's a turkey, ground turkey to be exact.  I am extremely distractible, and I daydream at the drop of a hat.  Except when I knit, or cook, or find myself in court trying a case.  I wouldn't mind a little consistency, but that wouldn't be me.

 

I decided to make my tiny turkey meatballs so I could have them with the  spaghetti squash and roasted grape tomato sauce.  I developed this recipe for the tiny meatballs a couple of years ago when I needed something to put in one of my quick chicken soups, and I had no cooked chicken.  These were delicious in the soup, and as it turned out, worked really well with the spaghetti squash and sauce.

Tiny Turkey Meatballs

20 oz. package of ground turkey (not all white meat)
1/2 cup matzo meal
2 eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons half and half
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
2 green onions, minced (all of the white and some of the light green part)
2 cloves garlic, minced
kosher salt
ground black pepper
Italian seasoning

Combine all of the above ingredients in a mixing bowl.  I like to use a fork to mix everything together, so the meatballs will not be too dense.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Using Pam or a similar product, spray the bottom of two shallow baking dishes, the inside of a very small scooper, and the palms of your hands.  Portion out all of the ground turkey with the scoop, then roll it into nice meatballs.  Place them into the baking pans, and bake for just 10 minutes.  Serve in soup or with sauce over noodles or even mashed potatoes and turkey gravy.

I would not substitute bread crumbs for the matzo meal.  Matzo meal is one of my secret ingredients, and it makes things like meatballs and meatloaves come out almost fluffy.  Fluffy, not stuffy.