Italian turkey sausage is great in this tasty sauce! It has a lower fat content then regular sausage; consequently it’s a bit healthier.

Soon I will be doing a video on how to make spinach lasagna. If you like a bit of sausage in your lasagna, this sauce recipe is perfect!

To make this sauce you will need:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 cup of chopped yellow onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds of sweet or hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
• 1 (28-ounce) can of crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 1 (6-ounce) can of tomato paste
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon of sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons of salt
• ½ teaspoon of pepper

It’s a really good habit to get all your ingredients prepared before you turn on the stove. It makes the cooking process go much more smoothly.

That means you need to:

1. Chop the onion
2. Mince the garlic
3. Chop the parsley
4. Remove the casings (that’s the really thin skin) from the sausage
5. Open the two cans
6. Measure the spices

Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet or frying pan. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent.

“Until translucent” is a typical term used to describe cooking onions. Raw onions are fairly opaque. As you start to cook them, they slowly reach a point where they become almost see-through. They have not turned brown, and are not supposed to for this recipe.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, or until you can smell the garlic cooking.

Add the sausage to the onions and garlic. I like to use a combination of both hot and sweet sausage. We need to cook it over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. This is just like browning ground beef.

Because this Italian turkey sausage has a lower fat content then regular Italian sausage, there will be very little fat to drain off. (If I were using regular sausage, I would definitely drain off the fat before adding the remaining ingredients.)

Now add the remaining ingredients:

• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Simmer the sauce, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until it has thickened.

This turns into a really thick sauce which is great over any pasta. Enjoy!

You can view and print this recipe here.

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