A barely cooked tomato sauce and oats give these turkey meatballs a fresh twist
One of the best things you can do with big in-season tomatoes, aside from simply slicing them and eating them with extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt, is to grate them into a gloriously fresh tomato sauce. It's easy and even fun to do if, like me, you tend to get a kick out of things like that. You just halve and seed the tomatoes, then grate them cut-side down on a box grater. As you grate, a lovely tomato pulp accumulates in the bowl while the tomato skins, acting as hand protectors, remain conveniently intact and are discarded at the end. I learned the technique from my Israeli friends who use it regularly, sometimes enjoying the grated tomato raw as a bright condiment and other times cooking it down as an ingredient, letting it cook just enough to remove its raw edge but retain its fresh essence.
This recipe takes the latter approach, cooking the grated tomato pulp with tender, browned turkey meatballs and seasoning it with harissa, a deeply flavorful, aromatic chili paste (which can be either mild or spicy) that is typical of Middle Eastern cuisine. If you don't have a jar of it in your kitchen yet, this is a perfect opportunity to pick some up. Use it to instantly punch up a multitude of dishes. Stir it into hummus or a lentil soup, spread it on sandwiches, or add it to a vinaigrette, for example.
Beside the uniquely flavorful, fresh tomato sauce in this recipe, the meatballs have a twist too - a healthful one. They are made from lean turkey bound with quick-cooking oats rather than bread crumbs, a swap that adds fiber and whole-grain nutrition to the mix, while serving to lock the moisture in the meatball. The result is an exciting yet comforting meal, which can be served in a bowl with a hunk of crusty bread or warm pita alongside, or ladled onto a bed of couscous or over a heap of fresh arugula leaves.