I finally met a turkey meatball I love, after years of trying. Ground turkey is bland compared with beef and pork, which sets me up for a lackluster meatball. The texture is often problematic, too: dry, dense or both. But Ali Slagle, borrowing a trick from the cookbook author Julia Turshen, adds a good amount of ricotta cheese to the turkey mixture. The result is a pan of meatballs so tender that you can easily slice into them with a spoon as you scoop up saucy bites from your bowl.

When I made these meatballs for dinner last week, it was far too hot outside for a buttery sauce and mashed potatoes on the side, as the recipe suggests — delicious, but wintry. So I tossed about a pint of halved cherry tomatoes into the pan and let them cook down along with the meatballs, and then served it all with toast. Light, bright: This is my summer 2025 meatball dinner.

I will not be making meatballs this week, however — I’m heading to Chicago! Melissa Clark and I will be chatting about home cooking at the Chicago Humanities festival this Saturday, May 10, at the Ramova Theater at 11 a.m. Tickets are here. Chicagoans, I would love to meet you in person.

Ground turkey can be tricky to work with — it’s relatively wet and sticks to your hands, making it difficult to roll a nice meatball. Ali’s solution is to lightly oil her hands before she starts shaping.

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