/> Clean Convenient Cuisine: What's For Dinner: Healthy Turkey Pasta!

Clean Convenient Cuisine

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Friday, August 13, 2010

What's For Dinner: Healthy Turkey Pasta!

I love pasta. Thick mounds of noodles, rich, creamy sauces, crispy bread dipped in olive oil and garlic. Endless glasses of red wine... what's not to love? Traveling in Italy gave new meaning to what I know as Italian food. When I had my first Italian pizza, topped with eggplant and mounds of fresh cheese, I knew that American interpretations would never taste the same.

But, through much trial and error, I have created a sauce that is healthy, light and tastes wonderful (and reminds me of my time in Italy). Made with all organic ingredients, lean, ground turkey instead of beef, organic pasta and just a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, this dish has a lighter quality where guilt does not follow in the morning.

Ingredients

1 medium can low-sodium tomato paste
1 jar organic tomato and basil sauce
1 roma tomato
1 package fresh basil
1 package spinach
dried onions
dried garlic
olive oil
1 bottle red wine
1 package organic linguine
1 package 93/7 lean ground turkey

In a large saucepan, pour 2 teaspoons olive oil, 1/3 cup water, dried onions and garlic. Let brown and then add package of turkey, seasoning as you like (oregano, paprika, cayenne, etc.). Cook until browned and then add can of tomato paste, mixing with the meat. Pour 1/3 cup more water, a little red wine, and cover, cooking for 5 minutes. Add in 1/2 to full jar of pasta sauce and cook on low to medium heat.

Boil water in separate pan and add pasta. While pasta is cooking, add spinach, 1 chopped tomato and basil to the sauce, cooking on low heat. Add a dash of parmesan, and once pasta is cooked, instead of draining the noodles into a strainer, collect a single scoop of pasta straight from the water and drop into sauce pan, mixing pasta and allowing water from the pasta to absorb with the sauce. Heap serving onto bowl or plate and repeat for other servings.

As an optional side, serve a fresh french baguette with a bowl of olive oil, chopped fresh garlic and parmesan for dipping. Want to skip the bread? Make a healthy salad instead.

Buon appetito!

2 comments:

  1. I made this and it was awesome! I love pasta but always think it has to be really unhealthy. I added up all the nutrition facts and it wasn't bad at all. I could not get over the sauce - where did you get the idea? So simple, but so good. And the tip to dipping the pasta IN the sauce instead of the other way around made a big difference. Thanks!

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  2. Thanks, Lucy! It's my mom's sauce, actually. She's been making it for years, and I just recently made it myself. You can play around with the ingredients, but I find it tastes so fresh and wonderful! And I knew two Italians who always dip their pasta into the sauce - the water from the pasta adds great flavor to the sauce. So glad you liked it!

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