Lemon Pepper Tuna Meatballs

After I made my Lemon Pepper Tuna Burgers last month, the kind folks at Starkist sent me a few different packages of their tuna to try out.

I wanted to find a creative way to use these packages of tuna and when I saw Bianca's recipe for tuna meatballs on her blog recently, I knew that this was the dish I wanted to make!  I decided to use two different kinds of tuna - the lemon pepper tuna and the yellowfin tuna in extra virgin olive oil.

I then did a quick scan in my fridge and pantry for the rest of my meatball ingredients.

• 1/4 cup of regular bread crumbs
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon of thinly sliced scallion greens
• 3-4 cups of your favorite pasta sauce

I started out by warming a leftover opened bottle of marinara sauce in a saucepan.  I added some red pepper flakes, onion powder and garlic powder to the sauce and let it slowly simmer. 

I then removed the tuna from the packages into a medium bowl.  I broke the tuna up so it wouldn't be in large clumps.

I then sliced up the scallion greens and added them to the bowl.  I mixed the tuna and scallion greens together.  I normally would have used something more traditional like parsley but I had leftover scallions in the fridge from my Cheesy Oatmeal and Soft-Cooked Egg and I didn't want the scallions to go to waste.

I then added a 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and a generous tablespoon of Parmesan cheese to the tuna mixture.  I gave everything a good stir.

The final ingredient was the egg and I mixed the egg in by hand.  I then shaped the tuna mixture into six medium-sized balls.

I warmed up a pan on the stove with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  When the oil was hot, I gently added the tuna meatballs to the pan.  I slowly rotated the meatballs so that all sides would nicely brown.

When the meatballs were browned, I added three of them to the pasta sauce to finish cooking in the sauce.  I gently scooped the three meatballs into a shallow bowl with some sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

I liked the dish but I didn't love it.  The tuna was way too moist, which is normally a good thing for packaged tuna but not so great for meatballs.  The moisture in the meatballs made the meatballs fall apart pretty easily and it didn't have the texture of traditional meatballs.  I should have maybe made mini meatballs like Bianca did so that they would retain their shape a little better. 

I ate the other three meatballs cold with a salad for lunch today and I liked them a lot more with the salad.  Without the sauce, I could taste the subtle lemon pepper flavor of the tuna.

I still have two more packages of tuna leftover.  What are some of the creative ways you use tuna?