Turkey-Feta Meatball Po-Boys (Somewhat Easy)

This Po-boy is a meal in itself!  You do not need anything else to go with this Po-boy, not even a salad, if you must have a salad, eat a way smaller sandwich.  This Po-boy consists of 3 meatballs, sauce, and some shredded mozzarella cheese and freshly baked French bread is a must!  This recipe fed 3 people two days in a row!  It made about 18 meatballs.  It is a bit time consuming and I highly recommend using a food processor if at all possible when preparing the meat for the meatballs.  It really does make life easier.  You can also make this meal to go over some penne pasta and have a spaghetti and meatball dinner.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs ground turkey

¾ cup(4oz) crumbled, feta cheese

8 garlic cloves peeled and diced

½ cup (about 12 saltine crackers) crushed

½ tsp. dried oregano

¾ tsp salt

1 large egg

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

¼ cup olive oil

4 thin slices prosciutto, about 2 oz, minced

1 cup dry red wine

2-28oz cans crushed tomatoes

1 lb penne pasta

Shredded mozzarella or mozzarella slices

Fresh French bread for sandwiches

Directions:

1. In a food processor (or crush by hand) crush the saltine crackers.  Set aside crushed crackers when done.  
2. Take your 1 ½ lbs ground turkey and place crumbled up in food processor, (if you do not have a food processor you can do all this in a mixing bowl and use a fork to crumble all the ingredients together). Add 4oz crumbled feta cheese and ½ cup crushed saltine crackers on top.  Mix well. 
3. Add 3 cloves of garlic, 1 egg, the tablespoon of tomato paste, ¾ tsp salt, and oregano, mix well until all ingredients are blended.  
4. Use an ice cream scoop and make approximately 2 oz sized meatballs and place in a cold frying pan. Once all meatballs are made, put on stove top, drizzle the ¼ cup olive oil on top and in the pan and cook for 5 minutes each side until browned. 
5. Once cooked, remove from pan.
6. Add the remaining 5 cloves of diced garlic, minced prosciutto and cook until garlic is golden.  
7. Add the red wine and simmer until reduced by half, about 1 minute then add the 2 cans of crushed tomatoes.  
8. Bring to a boil and then add the meatballs back to the sauce and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes with a lid on to help seal in the flavors.  
9. Serve meatballs with some of the sauce on fresh sliced French bread topped with shredded mozzarella cheese or one slice of mozzarella cheese. The penne pasta is also there to be used if you do not want to eat it as a Po-boy sandwich but more like a spaghetti and meatballs kind of dish, still serve with shredded mozzarella on top of that too. Enjoy!

12 crackers is exactly 1/2 cup crushed in the food processor.

Fills the 1/2 cup up quite nicely.

I first ground up the 1 1/2 lbs of turkey, then added the crushed crackers and entire 4 oz of crumbled feta cheese.

The meat ready to be made into meatballs. The egg, garlic, tomato paste and spices were also added to this mixture.

I did not have an ice cream scoop so I just formed these with my hands and I did not use an entire 1/4 cup of olive oil to fry these with, more like a tablespoon or two.

Done cooking and now I will remove them from the frying pan and cook up the remaining garlic and prosciutto.

I like to use the minced garlic in the jar. Prosciutto is sold by the deli in most stores and is individually packaged.

Call me lazy, I did not want to mince up the prosciutto, I mean how would I do that? So I just cut it up with scissors in a sloppy fashion. It still tastes fine going down. :)

Next adding the one cup of red cooking wine.

Any red cooking wine will do, usually sold on the aisle by the vinegar.

The 2 - 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes I used.

Done simmering! Time to eat!

Again, a very yummy meal!