Thas’ a spicy meat-a-ball!

I’m trying my best to be a good little hippie.  I really am.  So, when we ran out of peppercorns in the Trader Joe’s grinder, I went down to the co-op, bought some bulk peppercorns, and attempted to refill.  Then I made meatballs for Chris’ favorite, baked pasta.

Ugh.  I tried to fish out as many as I could, but there was only so much time I was willing to commit to sorting through turkey with my bare hands.  It gets old.  So, spicy it would be:

Adapted from Gourmet:

For the meatballs
1 pound ground turkey
1 large garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted and chopped
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat-leafed)
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon salt
About a CUP of PEPPERCORNS.  I mean, 1 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ziti or penne
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated mozzarella cheese (about 6 ounces)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
about 6 cups tomato sauce, or if you don’t have that, you can sub a large can of diced tomatoes, drained
15oz ricotta cheese

In a bowl stir together well turkey, garlic, bread crumbs, onion, pine nuts, parsley, egg, salt, and pepper and form into meatballs about 1 inch in diameter. In a large heavy skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and cook half of meatballs, shaking skillet, until browned and cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer meatballs to paper towels to drain and brown remaining meatballs in remaining 2 tablespoons oil in same manner.

Preheat oven to 375°F. and oil a 3- to 4-quart gratin dish or other shallow baking dish.

In a kettle of salted boiling water cook pasta until just al dente, about 8 minutes, and drain well. In a small bowl toss together mozzarella and parmesan.

Spoon about 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce and half of meatballs into prepared dish and spoon half of pasta on top. Spread half remaining sauce and half cheese mixture over pasta. Top with remaining meatballs and drop dollops of ricotta over meatballs. Spread remaining pasta over ricotta and top with remaining sauce and remaining cheese mixture.

Bake ziti in middle of oven 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

I’ll make this one again – it was a slight twist on our standard go-to.  The pepper actually provided some added excitement to the dish – I mean, you can’t go wrong with baked pasta in our minds, but it does tend to be a little comfort-food-boring at times.  The occasional unexpected crunch of a peppercorn really livened things up!  I think I drove Chris a little crazy, though, because I thought it was very funny whenever I’d say “Thassa spicy meataball” in a fake Italian accent.  Funny the first couple of times it happened, at least.