Linguine with Ground Turkey Meat Sauce

When returning from Oklahoma last week, our friend MLove graciously picked us up from the airport, saving us a lot of money that would have been spent taking a taxi home. To repay her, Brit and I invited her over for dinner the following week. Brit and I considered making either our seafood mix with garbanzo beans or my ground turkey meat sauce with pasta. MLove liked the idea of either and Brit and I decided to do something we hadn't eaten in a while, so pasta and sauce it was.
This dish is a recipe of mine from my childhood that Brit has fallen in love with. The original recipe was for homemade meatballs my mom would make, but I've adapted it to be a meat sauce. In reality, every time I would try to make the meatballs, I would get anxious about how cooked they were and would break open a few to see if they were done. By the time they were all cooked, the dish had devolved into just being a pasta sauce with meat chunks. I have since stopped trying to make meatballs and have evolved the dish into what it is today.

Pasta with Meat Sauce

serves 5-6

1 package pasta of your choice (we actually used a combo of linguini and thin spaghetti)
Olive oil
Salt
1 can pasta sauce (we bought a roasted garlic marinara from TJs)
1 lbs ground turkey breast
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 lemon, freshly squeezed
2-3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Black pepper
Garlic powder
6 garlic cloves, minced
Mushroom/asparagus/red onion mix from TJs (we were going to use this in another dish, forgot to, and decided to use the veggies in the meat sauce instead)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
6 carrots, diced and then quartered (we bought a mix of 3 different types of carrots from the farmer's market)
1-2 tbsp diced chives
Head of broccoli, chopped small
Parmigiano-reggiano cheese

In a large pot of water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Be sure to add 1-2 tbsp olive oil and to salt the water liberally.

In a glass bowl, combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, lemon juice, ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ground black pepper, salt, and garlic powder. Mix by hand until everything is well incorporated and then set aside.

Saute all of the veggies except the mushrooms, garlic, and chives. Cook over medium heat until soft. Add in the mushrooms, garlic, and chives and continue to cook until the mushrooms are done. I usually try to separate my veggies like this since the pepper, carrots, and onions always need more time to soften. The mushrooms and garlic don't need as long to be done and I've found that adding garlic at the beginning causes it to burn.

Once all of the veggies are complete, add the ground turkey and break it up into small bites with a spatula as it cooks. When the meat is fully cooked, add in the pasta sauce, mix everything together well, and simmer with the lid on for at least 10 minutes. Longer cooking times would help incorporate the flavors into the sauce better, but sometimes we're just too hungry to wait.

While the sauce is simmering, boil some water to cook and steam the asparagus and broccoli. The asparagus needed more time than the , so Brit removed the cooked broccoli with tongs, strained them dry, and let the asparagus cook until they were done.

Just as the asparagus were being strained, MLove showed up and we eagerly sat down to eat. The meal was served Brit's favorite way: in a bowl with the greens on top of the sauce, which is on top of the pasta. Parmigiano-reggiano cheese was provided to garnish the dish.

I love this meal and so does Brit. It's such a delicious reminder of both of our childhoods. There are always a lot of leftovers, so it's great to eat it for a few lunches or even dinner later in the week. The types of veggies we use varies every time, but I try to at least have onion, mushrooms, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, and the steamed broccoli. Asparagus and red onion was a new one for us and I rather liked it. This is also such a healthy dish too that I love to prepare it.