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Pasta Sauce – Italian Turkey Sausage

posted in Main Dishes, Soups, Salads, Sides and Sauces by Kathy Maister
Difficulty:
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Italian turkey sausage is great in this tasty sauce! It has a lower fat content then regular sausage; consequently it’s a bit healthier.

If you like a bit of sausage in your lasagna, this sauce recipe is perfect!

To make this sauce you will need:

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 cans of tomatoes and tomato paste
  6. Measure the spices

Now we are ready to start cooking!

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!

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11 Comments

bill said:

GREAT WEB SITE

Kathy Maister said:

Thanks Bill! Enjoy!

Shannon said:

Thanks Kathy! I love how you explain things such as about draining the fat for the fattier meat- I was going to adapt this recipe for the meat I have and I wouldn’t have thought of that otherwise! Great site!

Shannon

Kathy Maister said:

Thanks Shannon! There’s lots more to come!

phyllis said:

Thanks Kathy for this site. I was looking for an easy way to cook my turkey sausages other than with peppers and I found this site through google. Your directions were easy to follow and I enjoyed my meal.,

Once aggin, thanks

Phyllis

Kathy Maister said:

That’s great to hear Phyllis! This recipe is easy to personalize with more or less spices or with different types of sausage.

Sue said:

Great recipe! Just wondering if you have a suggestion on what to add if you want to make this a bit thinner in consistency? Thanks.

startcooking said:

Hi Sue,
Add less meat!
K.

Andrea said:

Great recipe! Beautiful.

marila said:

I´m an English teacher and always tell my students to visit startcooking. They learn a lot of new vocabs and new recipes as well.
Great web.

startcooking said:

Hi Marila,

What a lovely compliment!

All the best,
Kathy

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