We all eagerly anticipated my mother’s excellent turkey and Italian meat stuffing at every Thanksgiving. I took over the Thanksgiving feasts when she grew older and was unable to prepare them. Even though Grandma is no longer with us, my family members still beg for her recipe every year so they may make it for their own households. Now I’d like to give it to you.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 1 whole stuffed turkey |
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ (1 pound) loaf day-old Italian bread
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 large stalks celery with leaves, chopped
- ½ cup chopped fresh mushrooms (Optional)
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped, or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- ½ cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (15 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 lemons, cut in half
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped, or to taste
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder, or to taste
- 1 cup water (Optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Place the ground beef into a skillet, and cook and stir the meat until browned and crumbly, breaking it up into chunks as it cooks, about 10 minutes. Drain grease. Place the ground beef into a large mixing bowl.
- Tear the bread into rough chunks, and place into a bowl; soak bread in water until moistened, and squeeze the water out of the bread. Crumble the wet bread into the bowl with the ground beef. Mix in the onion, celery, mushrooms, 4 cloves of garlic, flat-leaf parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg until thoroughly combined. Season with salt and black pepper.
- Rinse the turkey, and pat dry with paper towels. Lightly stuff the turkey with the ground beef mixture, and place into a roasting pan with a lid. Rub the turkey with olive oil, squeeze lemons over the turkey, and sprinkle 2 more cloves of garlic, the garlic powder, and more salt and black pepper over the bird.
- Roast the turkey uncovered in the preheated oven until the skin is browned, about 45 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees C (175 degrees C), and cover the turkey with the lid. Continue roasting until the juices run clear and an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of a thigh reads 180 degrees F (80 degrees C), about 5 more hours. Baste occasionally. If the bottom of the roasting pan looks dry, pour in water.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 612 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 8 g |
| Cholesterol | 225 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 75 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 290 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 29 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
A hit with my family.
OMG, this is almost the exact same dressing my Mom made every Thanksgiving growing up. We are also Italian, I thought this was just something my family did. Didn’t realize it was an Italian recipe. After rummaging thru several family cookbooks, I found Mom’s recipe. Comparing the two, I was able to tweak my recipe. I don’t recall Mom using parmesan cheese in hers and I know she didn’t use garlic. Like some of the other families, we always stuffed the bird the night before with no problems. The secret, as told by my Nona, was to cook the meat dressing and put it in the fridge the night before you plan to stuff the bird. Take the turkey and dressing out of the fridge, salt & pepper the cavity and stuff. Mom also stuffed the neck cavity. Or you can bake it in a casserole. Thanks travelrose for a walk down memory lane. The dressing & the story behind it were a hit this Thanksgiving.
This is exactly how my mother made her dressing. Even the part about stuffing the bird. People do not like to do that any more. I do have to admit no one ever died from a stuffed bird when I was growing up. But she always had more stuffing than the bird could hold so she also made a casserol out of the extra. It turned out wonderful but every one ate the dressing from the bird first because it tasted so great.
Thank you for sharing your special family recipe. It is these kinds of recipes that make his site so great to use. May many of your future generations enjoy this yummy tradition with their families! I know we will!
Fine recipe! Thanks so much. Wonderful flavour. It’s a keeper.