Recipe: Healthy Red Meat Sauce

This is one of the easiest red sauces I’ve ever done. I use ground turkey as the base and then add Italian turkey sausage. If you can’t find the sausage, you can use a package of regular Italian sausage. It really makes the “Italian” flavor to me because it has lots of basil, fennel seed, spices, etc. Get some. When we made this up, we had a few people over for dinner and I roasted some spaghetti squash for the non-carb types and boiled some pasta for the carb mongers.

Here’s the recipe:

2lb package of ground turkey

1 package of Italian turkey sausage

1 large onion, chopped fine

6 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

Fresh basil, chopped fine

Salt and pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes to your level of tolerance

Spaghetti squash, roasted and shredded

1 package pasta of your choice, boiled and drained

2 jars commercial red sauce (if you like your sauce meatier, use 1 to 1 ½ jars of sauce)

Grated parmesan cheese (don’t skimp on the canned parm, get the good fresh stuff)

Method:

Squeeze the sausage from the casing into a large saute pan. Chop it up with a spatula and add the ground turkey while you’re doing this. Mix it all up well as it browns. Drain off the fat when it’s almost completely browned. Now add the chopped onion and saute until it starts to get translucent. Now add the garlic. Season with the salt, pepper, pepper flakes and basil. Taste it…is it good? Correct any seasonings and then add the sauce. Let it all simmer together for a bit. Finish it with the basil.

Serve it over either the spaghetti squash or the pasta, top with parmesan and fresh basil.

Open yourself some good Sangiovese, Barbera, or whatever your favorite red it. Enjoy!