Sausage-shaped 'meatballs' made with minced turkey, grated zucchini and fresh herbs and bathed and smothered in a delicious homemade marinara sauce. Topped with lots of oozy melted cheese and fresh basil leaves. This is like a slightly different, more flavoursome and veggie-packed version of a traditional chicken parmigiana.
Put the minced turkey into a large bowl. Extract some of the moisture out of the zucchini by blotting it with kitchen paper, then add the squeezed-out zucchini to the bowl as well.
Put the garlic, onion, herbs, cayenne pepper and salt & pepper into a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the mixture to the turkey along with the egg and mix well. Chill the mixture for at least half an hour in the fridge.
Heat up a skillet/frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in it. Meanwhile, pour a good layer of tomato sauce over the bottom of your dish.
Shape tablespoons of the mixture into sausage-shapes with your hands. Place them carefully in the hot pan and sear them on all sides for a couple of minutes. Remove them carefully with a metal slice and place them in one or two rows down the centre of your baking dish.
Bake for 30 minutes. Then pour a little more tomato sauce over the top of the meat and sprinkle plenty of cheese over the top of that. Bake for another 3 or 4 minutes until the cheese is melted. Scatter with plenty of fresh basil just before serving.
Notes
You can either use a large baking dish to prepare this meal for 4 people, or use the ingredients to make 2 meals for 2 people in a smaller baking dish. I split my mixture into 2 and froze half for another time.I put one neat row of the minced turkey and zucchini ‘sausages’ down the centre of my smaller dish for aesthetic purposes, but you could turn them around and arrange them in the dish the other way around to make better use of the space!You could even make little meat balls instead of the ‘sausages’ if you prefer.You can also vary the herbs in the meatballs if you like. Don’t like rosemary? No problem, use thyme, oregano or basil instead. Don’t fancy adding the mint? Then don’t!I used one of these to whizz together all of my onions, garlic and herbs. My favourite new kitchen toy!