Bolognese Sauce with Ground Turkey

I actually don't eat ground beef so I tend to shy away from a bolognese sauce.  But, I'll replace any recipe that calls for ground beef with ground turkey and I almost always love the results!  We eat turkey burgers and more recently tried turkey meatballs which were awesome.    

This recipe is adapted from Tyler Florence's Ultimate Lasagna.  I made the lasagna too, which is incredible and I'll post soon, but I wanted to share this amazing sauce first.  Tyler uses ground pork and ground beef in his sauce, so I just substituted those for an 85% lean ground turkey.  When we were eating it, my husband said if I had told him I used ground beef he would've believed me.  Yeah!  

A true bolognese begins with a soffrito - which is onions, carrots, and celery.  This recipe combines those 3 with garlic and sage and then processes to a vegetable pulp.  An entire 750 milliliter bottle of dry red wine is added (yup!), along with 1 large can of crushed tomatoes and then cooked slowly for over an hour until it becomes thick.  

  

It is SO good!  It definitely has a tangier flavor than a true, red tomato sauce because there is so much more wine used than tomatoes.  It's best served with a wider pasta, something like a tagliatelle, but pappardelle and fettucine would be good too.  

Serves 8

Bolognese Sauce with Ground Turkey

1/2 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
Olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
2 tablespoons flour
1 (750 ml) bottle dry red wine
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place onion, garlic, carrots, celery and sage in a food processor and process on low until it becomes smooth vegetable pulp.  Coat a large pot with oil and set over medium heat.  Add the vegetable pulp and saute until fragrant and some of the moisture has evaporated, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Push the vegetables to one side of the pot.  Season the ground turkey with salt and pepper and add to the pot.  Stir and break up the meat until it is browned and mixed in with the vegetable pulp.

Dust the meat and vegetable mixture with the flour, then add the wine, tomatoes and milk.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, uncovered, until sauce is thick. Add Parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with fresh pasta or dried pasta, a wider noodle like tagliatelle, pappardelle or fettucine.

(Adapted from Tyler Florence's cookbook My Place for Dinner)

Spicy Turkey Burgers with Avocado-Ranch Dressing

My husband and I have been grilling fools lately.  Probably a combination of the awesome weather we've been having, a new grill and a fantastic new brick courtyard we built.  But we are spending more time than ever outside.  At any rate, we grilled these turkey burgers the other night and they are amazing.  The burger itself is very simply seasoned, but garnished with spicy cheese, avocado-ranch dressing and if you like, a tomato and more avocado (yes, please!) makes it pretty sensational. 

The avocado-ranch dressing really cools down the spiciness of the pepper jack cheese and the burger itself.   Such a great combination!!  I make this sauce often - it's also fantastic with Southwestern egg rolls. 

Makes 4 burgers and 1 1/2 cups dressing 

Spicy Turkey Burgers

1 pound 93% lean ground turkey
1 tablespoon McCormick spicy grill seasoning
4 slices pepper jack cheese
4 good rolls (I used ciabatta)

Avocado-Ranch Dressing
1 cup ranch dressing
1 avocado, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried dill

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.  Divide the turkey into 4 equal parts and form each section into patties.  Make an indentation with your thumb in the middle of each patty to prevent the tops of the burgers from rounding.  Use the tablespoon of grill seasoning to sprinkle evenly over each one.  Place on grill and close lid, grilling for 4-5 minutes on each side or until they are cooked throughout (165 degrees using a meat thermometer).

Make the sauce: in a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients and mash with a fork (or I used my potato masher!).  Serve over the turkey burgers or as a dipping sauce or dressing.