Life With The Luikens: Mozzarella- Stuffed Pesto Turkey Meatballs

These meatballs are absolutely amazing, melt-in-your-mouth, make over and over again!! Tony and I love using ground turkey for many of our meals for 2 reasons: 1) It's healthy 2) It's delicious! Trust me, you won't taste a huge difference between turkey and beef if you just give it a try in some of your favorite recipes. We use it to make enchiladas, burgers, meatballs, sausage, everything.

This recipe is super easy and fills you up fast! You can eat it just plain, you could add it to a pasta, or you could even make it into a meatball sub sandwich. But, it can definitely stand alone! So good.

Mozzarella- Stuffed Pesto Turkey Meatballs

Ingredients

3 pounds ground turkey

1 cup finely chopped onion

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 egg

1 cup Italian- style breadcrumbs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup pesto (either homemade -see below- or storebought)

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons pepper

1 pound fresh mozzarella (either buy a big block that you can cut into cubes or buy it already grated)

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 (24 oz) jars marinara sauce

This recipe serves 36 meatballs, so if you would like to make less than that, than you can cut the ingredients in half or thirds.

**Note** A great homemade pesto recipe can be found here:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2/index.html

Thanks to my seester, Emily, for that great recipe!

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place ground turkey, onion, garlic, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, parsley, pesto, milk, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

3. Mix until evenly blended, then form into 1.5 inch balls.

4. Make a hole in the meatball with your finger and place the mozzarella cheese cube or grated mozzarella into the hole. Seal the meatball around the hole.

5. Place on a nonstick baking sheet.

6. Drizzle olive oil over the meatballs.

7. Bake until no longer pink in the center, about 30 minutes.