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+ servings

The Most Delicious Ground Turkey Red Sauce

This ground turkey red sauce will blow your mind! It's juicy, hearty, savory, sweet, and full of flavor. Toss it with pasta
Total Time 45 minutes
Course Main Course, Sauce
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 white onion diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter optional but delicious
  • 1 lb ground turkey
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
  • 2 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried parsley
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried basil
  • 28 oz. crushed tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • Salt for seasoning throughout
  • Freshly cracked black pepper to taste

If making with pasta:

  • 1 box rigatoni (or another pasta of your choice) cooked until al dente
  • Freshly grated Parmesan for topping, optional

Instructions
 

  • Season a large sauté pan or sauce pan on medium heat with 1/4 cup olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the onion. It should not aggressively sizzle! If it does, your pan is too hot. It should give you a soft whisper sizzle. Season with a pinch of salt. Sauté for 5-6 minutes, stirring often (every 30 seconds-1 minute or so) until the onion is lightly golden in color and translucent. 
  • Add the minced garlic to the pan and sauté until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
    If the pan seems dry, feel free to add a tiny splash of olive oil to lube up that garlic, but don't do this if it's not absolutely necessary because we're going to add some butter in a lil bit.
  • Add 2 tbsp of butter to the pan and mix together with the garlic and onion until melted.
  • Adjust the heat to high and add the ground turkey to the pan. Season generously with a few pinches of salt and then break the meat up with a spatula until it's dispersed into small chunks (that sounds awful but its truly the only way to describe this.)
  • Let the turkey cook undisturbed for 1-2 minutes at a time, then sauté with a spatula. Let the turkey cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 1-2 minutes. You'll know it's done when the meat is no longer pink and there are lots of golden brown bits on the bottom of the pan. The more the merrier! You want as much flavor as possible in this stage and golden browned bits = flavor. If there's water in the turkey, it will begin to cook off (will look like boiling water around the meat) within the first 5-7 minutes, then the turkey will start to caramelize once all the moisture is cooked off!)
  • Adjust the heat to medium. Pour the dry white wine into the pan and scrape the golden browned bits off the bottom of the pan so they combine with the wine. Cook off the wine for 2-3 minutes. Add the dried herbs to the meat mixture and toss together until fully combined.
  • Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar and another generous pinch of salt. Stir until combined. Taste the mixture to make sure the salt levels are where you want them to be. If they aren't, add more salt to taste and mix into the sauce. If you want pepper, this is the time to add it! The mixture should be lightly bubbling. If it's not, raise the heat until it comes to a simmer, then lower the heat to the low setting or "simmer" setting on your stove. Cover and let the mixture sit for 10-20 minutes as you prep whatever you want to serve it with! The longer a sauce sits, the more flavor it gets.

If serving with pasta:

  • As the sauce simmers, bring a pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the pasta into the water and cook until al dente, according to box instructions.
  • Transfer the al dente pasta to the pan with the sauce. Grate Parmesan over the hot, steaming pasta as it's sitting in the sauce. Then, toss it in the sauce with a large spoon or spatula -- this helps the sauce stick to the noodles, and of course, adds flavor.
  • Plate the pasta with an extra helping of Parmesan on top, or some fresh Parsley or basil. Enjoy immediately!

Notes

Dietary modifications:
For the dry wine, go for a vegetable broth, chicken broth, or beef broth to deglaze the pan. You could go with the juice of half of a lemon mixed with water as well if you want to bring some tart, brightness to your sauce. 
For the butter, just use more olive oil or another oil of your choice. Ghee is a little *too* buttery (even for me) to work in this sauce.
For the Parmesan, top the pasta (or whatever else you're serving!) with lemon zest, fresh herbs (basil and parsley are fabulous here,) dried herbs (Italian seasoning is great!) or nutritional yeast if that's your vibe
Keyword balsamic vinegar, butter, crushed tomatoes, dried basil, dried oregano, dried parsley, dry white wine, garlic, ground turkey, olive oil, pasta, tomato paste, unsalted butter, white onion
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