I must admit for most of my adult life I’ve never made spaghetti sauce from scratch. With so many good pre-made sauces on the market, I usually stock up when there’s a sale and (occasionally) doctor it up with some fresh herbs or tomatoes. Can I get an “amen?” Browsing through one of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks – Better Homes and Gardens Year-Round Slow Cooker Recipes – I found a recipe for arrabbiata sauce. I was intrigued because I’d never heard of arrabbiata sauce. After a little research, I discovered that “arrabbiata” is Italian for “angry.” The sauce gets its name from the burn of the crushed red peppers. Most everything about this recipe sounded great, but of course I had to add my own twists to make it more of something I’d want to eat. So I exchanged pancetta for bacon and I added a cup of Cabernet Sauvignon wine to the recipe. I thought if the sauce was going to be “angry,” then being a little “boozy” couldn’t hurt!
Arrabbiata Sauce with Turkey Meatballs
The arrabbiata sauce is extremely easy to make. Your slow cooker does most of the heavy lifting. To start the recipe, I browned the onion, bacon and garlic in a skillet – then transferred the contents to my slow cooker. You add all the rest of the ingredients (except for the pasta and meatballs – those come later!) into your slow cooker and give it a good stir. Set it on HIGH and put on the lid. Walk away for 4 to 5 hours and the sauce will be “perfetto!” About 45 minutes before your arrabbiata sauce is done, you’ll want to start making the turkey meatballs. I used pre-seasoned panko breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning spices, but you can use standard panko breadcrumbs and add in the Italian seasoning by hand. The mixture of the panko, butter and egg help bind the ingredients, and make for a great carmelized “crust” on the outside of the meatballs. I tend to like larger meatballs, so that requires even cooking. The trick is not to rush the browning process, so never go higher than medium-high heat. I don’t make homemade meatballs that often. Usually, I’ll just brown ground turkey into my sauce and make whatever sauce I’m using a meat sauce. But these turkey meatballs were to die for! Well worth the effort. You may want to make a double batch; they freeze well. Cook your pasta according to package directions. I used rotini pasta, but you can easily substitute your favorite pasta or what you have in your pantry. If you’re only having pasta for a meal, I like to use a bowl. It makes it easier to cover the pasta with sauce, without wasting a lot covering the entire length of a plate. Then pile on the meatballs and pour a healthy serving of arrabbiata sauce over it all. Top it with shredded Parmesan cheese and you’ve got a great weekday dinner or weekend lunch that’s good enough for company. I ended up adding Cabernet Sauvignon to this arrabbiata sauce recipe to make it “less angry.” What’s your favorite ingredient to add to spaghetti sauce?
56 ounces diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained
15 ounces tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon, or any dry red wine
8 servings cooked rotini pasta
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
For Meatballs:
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
20 ounces ground turkey, 93% lean
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 medium onions, minced
2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
For Sauce:
In a skillet, cook the onion, bacon and garlic over medium heat until onion is tender and bacon is browned.
Transfer mixture to a 5-quart slow cooker. Set skillet aside to use when cooking meatballs later.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours (or on LOW for 8 to 10 hours).
Serve over pasta and turkey meatballs. Sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
For Meatballs:
In a large bowl, thoroughly combine ground turkey, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, dried parsley, mined onions, eggs, butter, salt and pepper.
By hand, form golf ball-sized meatballs and place in cooled skillet (used when browning onion and bacon mixture earlier). Makes about 16 meatballs, or 2 per serving. Feel free to make your meatballs smaller or larger, based on your preference. But make all meatballs uniform in size so they cook evenly.
Place skillet with meatballs on burner at medium-high heat. Every 5 minutes or so, turn meatballs so that all sides will eventually brown and meatballs will be evenly cooked. Watch carefully and remove meatballs from skillet when done. Set aside to serve with arrabbiata sauce and pasta.
Notes
Sauce portion of this recipe lightly adapted from Better Homes & Gardens "Year-Round Slow Cooker Recipes"
Cinco de Mayo is almost here, so I’m hopeful that spring will decide to return soon…and stay for while!
To get into the celebratory spirit, I wanted to add some spice to a traditional baked chicken recipe featuring panko breadcrumbs. I love the crunchy texture of the panko so much that I’ll use it in turkey meatloaf and I’ve been known to eat them right from the bag.
With this Crunchy Fiesta Chicken, I’ve simply blended store-bought taco seasoning with panko breadcrumbs for my breading mixture.
Some recipes have you mix the shredded cheese with the breadcrumb mixture, but I prefer to put the cheese on last in the baking process. That allows the breadcrumbs to stay crunchy and for most of the cheese to stay on the chicken breast.
After dipping in an egg/water mixture, you dredge the chicken breasts in the glorious panko breadcrumbs on both sides. Then it’s ready to pop in an oven.
Turn once in the baking cycle for both sides to crisp up. Then top with 4-blend Mexican cheese a few minutes before the baking is done; just enough to let the cheese lightly melt. And you’ve got a crunchy, lightly spicy chicken breast that would be perfect for your Cinco de Mayo dinner. Pair it with a taco side salad and a great Mexican beer or tequila. Now that’s a meal worth celebrating!
Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, lightly coat with nonstick spray or olive oil. Then set aside.
In a pie pan, whisk together breadcrumbs and taco seasoning. Set aside.
In another pie pan, beat the eggs and incorporate 2 tablespoons of water. Take each individual chicken breast and dip (one side at a time) into the egg mixture, then the breadcrumb mixture. In some cases, you may need to dip each side twice to ensure full coverage.
Lay the chicken breast in the prepared baking pan, and repeat for the remaining chicken breasts.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is tender. Turn the chicken breasts halfway in the cooking time to ensure a crispy texture on both sides of the chicken.
During the last 3 minutes of baking, add about 1/4 cup of Mexican cheese on top of each chicken breast. Return to the oven and let it melt completely. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
I must admit for most of my adult life I’ve never made spaghetti sauce from scratch. With so many good pre-made sauces on the market, I usually stock up when there’s a sale and (occasionally) doctor it up with some fresh herbs or tomatoes. Can I get an “amen?” Browsing through one of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks – Better Homes and Gardens Year-Round Slow Cooker Recipes – I found a recipe for arrabbiata sauce. I was intrigued because I’d never heard of arrabbiata sauce. After a little research, I discovered that “arrabbiata” is Italian for “angry.” The sauce gets its name from the burn of the crushed red peppers. Most everything about this recipe sounded great, but of course I had to add my own twists to make it more of something I’d want to eat. So I exchanged pancetta for bacon and I added a cup of Cabernet Sauvignon wine to the recipe. I thought if the sauce was going to be “angry,” then being a little “boozy” couldn’t hurt!
Arrabbiata Sauce with Turkey Meatballs
The arrabbiata sauce is extremely easy to make. Your slow cooker does most of the heavy lifting. To start the recipe, I browned the onion, bacon and garlic in a skillet – then transferred the contents to my slow cooker. You add all the rest of the ingredients (except for the pasta and meatballs – those come later!) into your slow cooker and give it a good stir. Set it on HIGH and put on the lid. Walk away for 4 to 5 hours and the sauce will be “perfetto!” About 45 minutes before your arrabbiata sauce is done, you’ll want to start making the turkey meatballs. I used pre-seasoned panko breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning spices, but you can use standard panko breadcrumbs and add in the Italian seasoning by hand. The mixture of the panko, butter and egg help bind the ingredients, and make for a great carmelized “crust” on the outside of the meatballs. I tend to like larger meatballs, so that requires even cooking. The trick is not to rush the browning process, so never go higher than medium-high heat. I don’t make homemade meatballs that often. Usually, I’ll just brown ground turkey into my sauce and make whatever sauce I’m using a meat sauce. But these turkey meatballs were to die for! Well worth the effort. You may want to make a double batch; they freeze well. Cook your pasta according to package directions. I used rotini pasta, but you can easily substitute your favorite pasta or what you have in your pantry. If you’re only having pasta for a meal, I like to use a bowl. It makes it easier to cover the pasta with sauce, without wasting a lot covering the entire length of a plate. Then pile on the meatballs and pour a healthy serving of arrabbiata sauce over it all. Top it with shredded Parmesan cheese and you’ve got a great weekday dinner or weekend lunch that’s good enough for company. I ended up adding Cabernet Sauvignon to this arrabbiata sauce recipe to make it “less angry.” What’s your favorite ingredient to add to spaghetti sauce?
56 ounces diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained
15 ounces tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon, or any dry red wine
8 servings cooked rotini pasta
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
For Meatballs:
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
20 ounces ground turkey, 93% lean
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 medium onions, minced
2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
For Sauce:
In a skillet, cook the onion, bacon and garlic over medium heat until onion is tender and bacon is browned.
Transfer mixture to a 5-quart slow cooker. Set skillet aside to use when cooking meatballs later.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and crushed red pepper. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 hours (or on LOW for 8 to 10 hours).
Serve over pasta and turkey meatballs. Sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
For Meatballs:
In a large bowl, thoroughly combine ground turkey, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, dried parsley, mined onions, eggs, butter, salt and pepper.
By hand, form golf ball-sized meatballs and place in cooled skillet (used when browning onion and bacon mixture earlier). Makes about 16 meatballs, or 2 per serving. Feel free to make your meatballs smaller or larger, based on your preference. But make all meatballs uniform in size so they cook evenly.
Place skillet with meatballs on burner at medium-high heat. Every 5 minutes or so, turn meatballs so that all sides will eventually brown and meatballs will be evenly cooked. Watch carefully and remove meatballs from skillet when done. Set aside to serve with arrabbiata sauce and pasta.
Notes
Sauce portion of this recipe lightly adapted from Better Homes & Gardens "Year-Round Slow Cooker Recipes"
It’s rainy and damp, and hardly festive right now. But Cinco de Mayo is almost here, so I’m hopeful that spring will decide to return soon…and stay for while!
To get into the celebratory spirit, I wanted to add some spice to a traditional baked chicken recipe featuring panko breadcrumbs. I love the crunchy texture of the panko so much that I’ll use it in turkey meatloaf and I’ve been known to eat them right from the bag.
With this Crunchy Fiesta Chicken, I’ve simply blended store-bought taco seasoning with panko breadcrumbs for my breading mixture.
Some recipes have you mix the shredded cheese with the breadcrumb mixture, but I prefer to put the cheese on last in the baking process. That allows the breadcrumbs to stay crunchy and for most of the cheese to stay on the chicken breast.
After dipping in an egg/water mixture, you dredge the chicken breasts in the glorious panko breadcrumbs on both sides. Then it’s ready to pop in an oven.
Turn once in the baking cycle for both sides to crisp up. Then top with 4-blend Mexican cheese a few minutes before the baking is done; just enough to let the cheese lightly melt. And you’ve got a crunchy, lightly spicy chicken breast that would be perfect for your Cinco de Mayo dinner. Pair it with a taco side salad and a great Mexican beer or tequila. Now that’s a meal worth celebrating!
Preheat oven to 400 F degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, lightly coat with nonstick spray or olive oil. Then set aside.
In a pie pan, whisk together breadcrumbs and taco seasoning. Set aside.
In another pie pan, beat the eggs and incorporate 2 tablespoons of water. Take each individual chicken breast and dip (one side at a time) into the egg mixture, then the breadcrumb mixture. In some cases, you may need to dip each side twice to ensure full coverage.
Lay the chicken breast in the prepared baking pan, and repeat for the remaining chicken breasts.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until chicken is tender. Turn the chicken breasts halfway in the cooking time to ensure a crispy texture on both sides of the chicken.
During the last 3 minutes of baking, add about 1/4 cup of Mexican cheese on top of each chicken breast. Return to the oven and let it melt completely. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.
What do Pussy Riot, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, Sandra Bullock, The Tonight Show’s Questlove and Pharrell’s big hat have in common? They’re all immortalized in this pop culture “AWE Inspiring Easter Egg Art” video – which totally cracked me up! Pun intended.
I don’t know which of these yolk-filled masterpieces were my favorites. It may be a tie between John Travolta | Adele Dazeem and the always-falling Jennifer Lawrence. Which one is your fave?
Everybunny needs a little extra help and a fresh take in the kitchen when it comes to getting ready for family holiday gatherings, like Easter.
Honestly, I get bored with “traditional Easter” menus. I don’t love ham and I prefer my eggs scrambled or omeletted (yes, that’s a word in my world). Many of the traditional Easter foods I grew up with I just don’t care for as an adult. But that’s not to say that I don’t like to cook with many of the ingredients found in these dishes. I’m simply challenged to find a way to incorporate those ingredients in ways that will excite my palate – and those of the 23 members of my immediate family when we get together for an Easter brunch. [Yes, when the ENTIRE family gets together we have that many in the immediate family, not counting pets!]
So I accepted a challenge to use three varieties of KRAFT #FreshTake Cheese & Breadcrumb mixes to create side dishes for Easter brunch on this #shop for #Collective Bias. But I knew I had to get some help from some bunnies (actually, they’re apricot-fawn pugs) named Baxter and Bing. They are rescues and the MOST FOOD OBSESSED DOGS my vet and dog trainer have ever seen! That’s probably why the universe put us together. Their help in deciding on what to make for an Easter brunch menu is (almost) always invaluable.
Now Baxter and Bing don’t actually help prep any food (I thought I should call that out, as I’ve been told I’m somewhat obsessive when it comes to my dogs). But Bing (the father) and Baxter (the son) may occasionally taste test an ingredient as I cook.
Bing and Baxter aren’t very vocal, unlike their constantly-barking-at-the-wind black pug sisters, Della and Marlo. [Della and Marlo aren’t yet 2 years old, so they’re too young to help out much in the kitchen for now.] But Bing and Baxter can communicate “the world” with a single look, so I pay close attention to their eyes when we “collaborate” on what to make. We “conferred” and decided on using three varieties of KRAFT Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb mixes for our Easter brunch menu:
#FreshTake Italian Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes [Sweden’s version of baked potatoes]
#FreshTake Southwest Three Cheese Stuffed Peppers [hearty enough to be a satisfying entrée on its own]
#FreshTake Cheddar Jack with Bacon Deviled Egg Cups [a modern take on a traditional app]
So it was off to my local Walmart to get the ingredients. You’ll find KRAFT Fresh Take in the refrigerated cheese aisle.
For a limited time, you can save $1.00 on the purchase of any KRAFT Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb Mix and fresh chicken at Walmart. Get your $1.00 coupon here.
Hasselback Potatoes
If you’ve read Baked Chicago before, you may know that I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like. And while I love a good baked potato, it can be kinda boring to serve for a special occasion. But not Hasselback Potatoes, which are Sweden’s version of baked potatoes. They were made popular by the restaurant inside the Hasselbacken Hotel in Stockholm that created the dish.
By using a simple cutting technique (which also helps the potatoes to cook faster) and adding some simple ingredients inside or atop the potatoes while they bake, you have a simply elegant – and unbelievably delicious – potato dish that everyone is going to gobble down at the Easter table. [I guess that’s a better description for the Thanksgiving table, but you know what I mean.]
This dish would also be something that you could cook to impress someone, like a first date, because they look like they would be difficult to make. But they’re not. It’s all in the presentation, and (from where I sit) there’s no need to let them know just how easy it was!
During the cooking process, the potato start to fan out – making for a beautiful presentation on the plate.
Hasselback Potatoes with KRAFT Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb Mix
Rating: 51
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
18 small Yukon Gold potatoes (about 3 pounds), peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 package KRAFT Fresh Take Cheese & Breadcrumb Mix, Italian Parmesan Recipe
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and ground black pepper, for seasoning
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 400 F degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Place peeled potatoes on a cutting board. Cut a narrow slice from the bottom of each potato to help the potato lie flat; discard the slice.
Place one wooden chopstick (2 total) on each side of the potato, lengthwise. Use a knife to slice each potato crosswise making slices about 1/4-inch apart for the length of the potato. The chopsticks will prevent the knife from cutting through the bottom of the potato. You want to leave about 1/4-inch on the bottom of the potato intact.
After cutting the potatoes, gently rinse them to rid excess starch which can impede fanning. Carefully flex the potatoes while rinsing under cold running water. Dry the potatoes well before baking.
Place the contents of the entire KRAFT Fresh Take Italian Parmesan package in a food processor, along with olive oil. Pulse until well blended.
Brush the potatoes with melted butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Pat the prepared KRAFT Fresh Take cheese & breadcrumb mixture on top of each potato.
Place potatoes onto the prepared baking sheet. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until they turn crispy and are fork-tender.
Notes
Hasselback potatoes are also known as the Swedish version of baked potatoes, popularized by the restaurant at the Hasselbacken Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. As the potatoes bake, the slices fan out slightly - making for an elegant presentation.
The next dish I made was a slow cooker version of stuffed peppers. Many cooks use green bell peppers, but I personally think the vibrant colors of the orange, yellow and red bell peppers are much more visually appealing. As a kid, I hated most green vegetables. While my palate grew up, my eyes still find the same green of most vegetables to be quite dull.
Go veggie! You can also turn this into a vegetarian dish by simply eliminating the ground turkey.
What I love best about this recipe is that it’s another slow cooker home run. I have [undiagnosed] adult ADD. So anytime I can put something into the slow cooker and forget it for a few hours, I am so HOPPY…I mean HAPPY!
Ingredients
6 large bell peppers, tops removed and seeded
1 pound ground turkey, browned and crumbled
10 ounces frozen kernel corn
15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed
14.5 ounces diced tomatoes
1/4 cup chunky salsa
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 cup brown rice, cooked
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 package KRAFT Fresh Take Southwest Three Cheese & Breadcrumbs
Directions
In a skillet, cook the ground turkey until browned. Crumble it as you stir. Set aside. Cook the brown rice according to package directions. Set aside. Cut off the tops of each pepper, then core and remove seeds, membranes. Rinse out with cold water. If needed, slice off any uneven portion of the bottoms of each pepper in order for them to lie flat. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, corn, black beans, diced tomatoes, salsa, onions, brown rice and Worcestershire sauce until blended. Stuff peppers with mixture and top with KRAFT Fresh Take cheese & breadcrumbs. Stand peppers in a slow cooker. Add 1/2 cup water in the bottom and cover. Cook on low for 6 hours (or on HIGH for 3 hours), or until peppers are tender. Makes 6 servings.
Deviled Egg Cups
The final recipe for my Easter brunch is a twist on deviled eggs. I have always liked the taste of deviled eggs, but I’m not a fan of the rubbery texture that hard-boiled egg whites can sometimes have. Deviled egg cups use phyllo dough for the vessel, so it adds a nice crunchy texture that I find irresistible.
And the filling couldn’t be easier. You essentially puree the hard-boiled eggs (yolks and whites!) and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Then pipe the filling into the phyllo shells and you’ve got a somewhat fancy appetizer that is great for a large gathering.
But don’t forget to garnish with thick-cut bacon. That’s Bing and Baxter’s tip, because they love anything topped with bacon. And I concur.
Ingredients
30 (2 boxes) frozen mini phyllo shells
6 hard-boiled large eggs, peeled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 package KRAFT Fresh Take Cheddar Jack with Bacon Cheese & Breadcrumbs
5 slices thick-cut bacon, crispy and chopped, for garnish
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the phyllo shells on baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Let cool.
In food processor, puree eggs, mayonnaise, lemon juice, pepper, salt and contents of Fresh Take Cheddar Jack with Bacon. Put egg mixture in a resealable plastic bag, cut off tip and pipe into shells.
Garnish with chopped bacon and serve at room temperature. Makes 30 deviled egg cups.
Finally, Some Fun For The Kids
I hope you found some inspiration in these recipes as you prepare your Easter menu. Whether you’re cooking for yourself or for a super-humongous group, make it easy on the chef! Simple can also be delicious and a crowd-pleaser. What’s going to be on your Easter menu this year? Share your comments below.
Dig out the plastic eggs from the basement or attic and get ready for some marathon Easter egg hunts! [For those with kids under age 6, you know what I mean. I have 13 nieces and nephews, of which 8 are under 10 years old. So I’ve hosted my share of egg-citing – and unending – egg hunts. Just don’t forget where you put the eggs. Seriously. Don’t forget.]
Many of my nieces and nephews have iPads and hand-held electronic games, so anything as “manual” as an Easter egg hunt may see alien to them as they get into their teens. I remember as a younger kid that I loved to color with crayons and do word games/puzzles, so I wanted to share with you an Easter coloring page and maze puzzle (both are downloadable PDFs) that you can share.
Who knows? It might just buy you 10 minutes of uninterrupted time in the kitchen. And for that, you’ll thank me!
I must admit for most of my adult life I’ve never made spaghetti sauce from scratch. With so many good pre-made sauces on the market, I usually stock up when there’s a sale and (occasionally) doctor it up with some fresh herbs or tomatoes. Can I get an “amen?” Browsing through one of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks – Better Homes and Gardens Year-Round Slow Cooker Recipes – I found a recipe for arrabbiata sauce. I was intrigued because I’d never heard of arrabbiata sauce. After a little research, I discovered that “arrabbiata” is Italian for “angry.” The sauce gets its name from the burn of the crushed red peppers. Most everything about this recipe sounded great, but of course I had to add my own twists to make it more of something I’d want to eat. So I exchanged pancetta for bacon and I added a cup of Cabernet Sauvignon wine to the recipe. I thought if the sauce was going to be “angry,” then being a little “boozy” couldn’t hurt!
The arrabbiata sauce is extremely easy to make. Your slow cooker does most of the heavy lifting. To start the recipe, I browned the onion, bacon and garlic in a skillet – then transferred the contents to my slow cooker. You add all the rest of the ingredients (except for the pasta and meatballs – those come later!) into your slow cooker and give it a good stir. Set it on HIGH and put on the lid. Walk away for 4 to 5 hours and the sauce will be “perfetto!” 
About 45 minutes before your arrabbiata sauce is done, you’ll want to start making the turkey meatballs. I used pre-seasoned panko breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning spices, but you can use standard panko breadcrumbs and add in the Italian seasoning by hand. The mixture of the panko, butter and egg help bind the ingredients, and make for a great carmelized “crust” on the outside of the meatballs. I tend to like larger meatballs, so that requires even cooking. The trick is not to rush the browning process, so never go higher than medium-high heat. I don’t make homemade meatballs that often. Usually, I’ll just brown ground turkey into my sauce and make whatever sauce I’m using a meat sauce. But these turkey meatballs were to die for! Well worth the effort. You may want to make a double batch; they freeze well. 
Cook your pasta according to package directions. I used rotini pasta, but you can easily substitute your favorite pasta or what you have in your pantry. If you’re only having pasta for a meal, I like to use a bowl. It makes it easier to cover the pasta with sauce, without wasting a lot covering the entire length of a plate. Then pile on the meatballs and pour a healthy serving of arrabbiata sauce over it all. Top it with shredded Parmesan cheese and you’ve got a great weekday dinner or weekend lunch that’s good enough for company. 
I ended up adding Cabernet Sauvignon to this arrabbiata sauce recipe to make it “less angry.” What’s your favorite ingredient to add to spaghetti sauce?
