Ground Turkey Tomato Sauce

Okay, I was supposed to put up pictures and recipes of what to do with that tapenade and sundried tomato spread; that will have to wait a few days. In the meantime, here is one of my favorite new recipes. The Italian-American in me always has to have peas dumped on top of my pasta with meat sauce, but that's optional.

Ground Turkey Tomato Sauce
makes 6-8 servings

• 2 (14-oz) cans whole tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 head garlic, roasted
• 1-2 cups diced vegetables, see below
• 1-2 tablespoons capers
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 lbs. ground turkey, thawed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• salt, pepper, oregano to taste

1. Sautee half of the onions, 1-2 cups other vegetables, and capers in olive oil over medium heat in a large (cast-iron if you've got it) pan. This is a great time to use up any vegetables you have on hand: carrots, celery, red or green peppers, eggplant, mushrooms, leeks, shallots, more onions, even hot peppers.
2. Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid. Over a sieve, seed tomatoes and add to pan. Continue cooking vegetables and tomatoes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
3. Transfer vegetables and roasted garlic to a blender or food processor; blend until smooth, using reserved liquid to thin as need. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, in same pan, add the rest of the onions (and more oil if needed), and cook for 1 minute. Add ground turkey and cook until no longer pink. Then add soy sauce, molasses, and Worchestershire sauce. Cook for another minute.
5. Add tomato paste to meat and stir until well-incorporated.
6. Transfer pureed vegetables, meat, and remaining tomato juice to a crock-pot. Add bay leaves and seasonings to taste. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6-8. Taste and readjust seasonings before serving.

This is really more of a method than an exact recipe. The soy sauce, molasses, and Worchestershire sauce actually help give the turkey a meatier flavor. I also sometimes add about a teaspoon of beef bouillon for the same reason. The sauce ends up really chunky and hearty, with far less saturated fat than a beef or pork sauce. Like I said, it's also a great way to get rid of vegetables you need to get rid of; I threw in about half an eggplant and half a red pepper that were destined to remain in my fridge indefinitely. You could also add more vegetables to the meat pan so they don't get pureed, and have an even chunkier sauce; mushrooms would be a good candidate for that.

I've been serving this over homemade fettucine, which now that I have a pasta-roller, will be much, much easier to make. The great thing is you can freeze this sauce, and homemade pasta, and buy frozen peas. Then when you want a nice home-cooked meal and don't want to actually cook much, just throw the sauce in a sauce pan (freeze meal-sized portions separately), put on some boiling water, defrost the peas, throw in the frozen pasta (it cookes in under 5 minutes), and serve it all together! You can of course use dried pasta as well, but who has that kind of time?