I make turkey meatballs from another recipe on another site which was delicious and used the above sauce. The sauce is a bit bland. Any ideas on how to spice it up?

Hi Donna,

In this recipe, much of the seasoning is right in the meatballs. If your meatball recipe left out the herbs, you can add them directly to the sauce.

I'd add fresh basil, parsley, chopped onions, a few more cloves of minced garlic, a pinch of oregano and 1/4 cup of red wine such as Marsala or 2 tablespoons balsamic or red wine vinegar (omit sugar). You can also start a meat sauce with chopped salt pork, pancetta or any other kind of pork for added flavor.

Hope this helps!

-- CM

You can also try adding some crushed red pepper to the sauce to spice it up!!

I add chicken stock to my sauce. It definitely adds flavor! Make sure to stir in well.

I made some turkey meatball not long ago with a recipe of my own similar to the one above and added some black olive tapenade to the sauce and it was delicious. Not bad to chop some good black olives into the meatball mixture either!

I just made these turkey meatballs according to the recipe above except I used oatmeal instead of bread crumbs because that's what I had on hand. I also added garlic powder and salt. They were delicious! I made meatball subs with some leftover spaghetti sauce I had in the freezer. My kids and husband's plates were clean! Great meatball recipe!

I used saltine crackers, crushed, instead of bread crumbs or oatmeal. Does the same trick. I also added one clove of freshly minced garlic. They were a big hit!

I, also, didn't have bread crumbs on hand so I just crushed some Ritz crackers in my hands and measured out what I needed (It was about 8 crackers).

Turkey is a lot like tofu in that you need to add a good bit of seasonings. I probably used a half a pound more of turkey and I doubled the seasoning measures. I also used my standard Simon and Garfunkel Italian seasonings too (parsley sage, rosemary and thyme) in the same proportions. Delicoius! Another thing when you are buying turkey try and find ground turkey with a higher fat content. Fat tastes good! This also applies for turkey bacon and other turkey products that they vary the fat content.

As is, the recipe lacks a bit of flavor. My suggestion for the sauce is to cook the onions in the charred bits from the meatballs. Once the onion is translucent, add the garlic. Cook one minute and then add the chicken broth and cook it down a bit (approx 5 minutes). After that, add all the other ingredients (I would also add some basil) and cook for 30 minutes. It will infuse all that flavor into the onions, make for a faster thickened sauce and you may be able to get away with using less tomato paste. Also, if you add grated carrots it will sweeten the sauce without the need for sugar. Great base though!

I am going to try this. Since Turkey is bland it has to absorb flavors from other sources. Am going to use the suggestions by CM. CM is always right on the money. Thanks for submitting. CM thanks for the notation...