Try easy turkey Bolognese sauce on your pasta tonight, made with ground turkey, Italian turkey sausage, tomatoes, and fresh basil. It tastes like it’s been simmered all day (but it will only take you an hour!).
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: The sauce is super flavorful and includes healthy vegetables.
How long it takes: just under an hour but it can simmer longer if that works better with your schedule
Equipment you’ll need: large skillet or Dutch oven, pasta pot
Servings: 6
About this Turkey Bolognese recipe
- Easy: This is really an uncomplicated sauce recipe. All you’ll need is a nice big pan, like a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven. Unlike a classic bolognese, this recipe is ready in less than an hour.
- Delicious and good for you: You’ll love this good-for-you almost classic Bolognese! The sauce is very rich tasting and hearty yet it’s lower in fat than traditional Bolognese because it’s made with healthier ground turkey. In fact, a generous serving of pasta and sauce is less than 400 calories!
- Perfect Italian style dinner: Serve this classic spaghetti sauce with your favorite pasta, whether it’s spaghetti or linguine or penne. Make it a stay-at-home “Olive Garden” night with a simple green salad dressed with homemade Italian dressing and breadsticks with restaurant style dipping oil. That’s amore!
How to Make it
Begin by browning the carrots and onions, then add the meat, breaking up the clumps, and stirring until it’s cooked. Add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and minced garlic; cook and stir for a couple of minutes.
Cooking Tip
Not sure what to do with the tomato paste that’s left in the can? Divide the rest up into two tablespoon portions, place each portion into snack sized bags, flatten slightly, and freeze. The next time you make spaghetti sauce, just unwrap and drop the frozen sauce in the pan.Okay, back to the sauce. Deglaze the pan with a little red wine. Now that the bottle’s open, why not pour yourself a glass, too? Add the tomatoes and let the sauce simmer for a while, twenty minutes at least but really as long as you want. You’ll probably want to get the pasta water boiling now.
When you’re ready to serve dinner, stir in a dash of cream, and freshly chopped basil and parsley.
Recipe Tip
Only have dried herbs? No problem but use less if you’re using dried, about 1 tablespoon each.
What You’ll Need
This recipe has everything you’d expect in a winning pasta sauce! As always, scroll down for the printable version of the recipe.
- Meat: We used a blend of ground turkey and sweet Italian turkey sausage. You could also use a combination of ground beef and pork Italian sausage, or ground beef and turkey Italian sausage, or ground beef and pork Italian sausage. Any combo of these will work!
- Vegetables: Be sure to finely mince your onions and carrot so that they blend in with the meat and form a uniform sauce. You’ll also be adding a large can of crushed tomatoes.
- Seasoning: Lots of garlic, of course, as well as fresh basil and parsley. If you’d like, sprinkle in a dash of red pepper flakes.
- Flavor amplifiers: You’ll also be adding tomato paste and red wine to add depth to the flavor.
- Heavy Cream: We use less in this recipe than many Bolognese recipes, to make it a little healthier but, of course, you’re welcome to add more! It adds a subtle richness and makes the sauce super velvety.
Adding milk serves a couple purposes. One, it gives it a velvety texture, but it also adds depth of flavor. It may also tenderize the meat slightly. We use just a dash of heavy cream in this recipe to keep down the calories, but also because heavy cream is much less likely to curdle over high temperatures. Plus, a little goes a long way, which is a bonus!
For the best tasting bolognese, we recommend following this recipe, especially the fresh herbs! Fresh herbs are flavor powerhouses and in a dish like this especially, dry will suffice, but fresh is a much better choice. You could also add more things to your sauce like finely diced mushrooms or red bell peppers. Dice them small like your other vegetables.
You’ll notice our recipe does not call for sugar, but we recommend tasting at the end of cook time and adding sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes as desired.
Make It Your Own
- Slow cooker sauce: Looking for a slow cooker spaghetti sauce? Brown onion, carrots, garlic, and meat in a skillet on the stove. Add to a slow cooker with the remaining ingredients, except fresh herbs and cream. Cover slow cooker and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. Or try Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce with meat or vegetarian options.
- Instant Pot sauce: Did you get an Instant Pot for Christmas? Try Instant Pot Bolognese.
- Use different meat: Not crazy about turkey? Substitute ground beef for the ground turkey and pork Italian sausage.
- Make it meatless: For a meatless version, you’ll want to try vegan Bolognese with lentils and quinoa.
- Omit the cream: Omit the heavy cream if you’re lactose-intolerant. The sauce will still be great!
- Add vegetables: “Green up” your sauce with spinach leaves, stirring them in with the basil and parsley. The tender leaves will wilt almost instantly in the hot sauce.
- Shortcut: Rather make your Bolognese with jar sauce from the grocery store? Omit the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, salt and pepper. Add a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce instead.
Make a double batch of sauce and freeze half to use later. Store it in a freezer container for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge for best results.
Leftover sauce? This sauce reheats really well. Simply store it in the fridge in a tightly covered container for up to 4 days. Don’t worry if you already mixed the pasta with the sauce. You can reheat that, too. Warm up on the stove or on the microwave until it’s heated through.
More pasta recipes
Eat pasta, run fasta! If you’re a runner, you’ve probably heard that little jingle. Looking for more pasta recipes? Try:
- Homemade Spaghetti Sauce — this one is a favorite on my site!
- Pizza Pasta — one pan, 6 ingredients
- Taco Pasta — another one pan pasta recipe
- Fresh Tomato Cream Sauce with Angel Hair Pasta (Pink Pasta)
- Chicken Tuscan Pasta Bake
- One Pan Rigatoni with Creamy Red Wine Tomato Sauce
- Skinny Alfredo Sauce made with Cauliflower
Turkey Bolognese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup finely diced carrot (about 2 large carrots)
- 1 cup finely diced onion (about ½ large onion)
- ½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 pound bulk sweet Italian turkey sausage
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup dry red wine
- 1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- sugar, optional (see note)
- Parmesan cheese, for serving
- 1 pkg. (14-16 oz.) spaghetti, or pasta of your choice
Instructions
- In a large straight-sided skillet or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat. Sauté carrots, onions, salt and pepper for 3 to 4 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Add ground turkey and sausage, and brown, breaking up clumps, until meat is cooked, about 5 minutes.
- Add tomato paste and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add wine, and cook 2 more minutes, scraping up browned bits, until wine is mostly reduced. Stir in crushed tomatoes and red pepper flakes, if using. Reduce heat to low and simmer until slightly thickened, 20-30 minutes, or longer, if desired.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to package instructions; drain, reserving ½ cup pasta water.
- When ready to serve, stir in basil, parsley, and heavy cream. Taste sauce and season with salt, sugar (see note), and red pepper flakes as desired.
- Add drained pasta, and thin sauce with reserved pasta water, if necessary. Alternatively, serve sauce over pasta. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.
Notes
- Slow cooker sauce: Looking for a slow cooker spaghetti sauce? Brown onion, carrots, garlic, and meat in a skillet on the stove. Add to a slow cooker with the remaining ingredients, except fresh herbs and cream. Cover slow cooker and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours. Or try Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce with meat or vegetarian options.
- Use different meat: Not crazy about turkey? Substitute ground beef for the ground turkey and pork Italian sausage.
- Omit the cream: Omit the heavy cream if you’re lactose-intolerant. The sauce will still be great!
- Add vegetables: “Green up” your sauce with spinach leaves, stirring them in with the basil and parsley. The tender leaves will wilt almost instantly in the hot sauce.
- Shortcut: Rather make your Bolognese with jar sauce from the grocery store? Omit the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, salt and pepper. Add a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce instead.
- We don’t typically add sugar, but we recommend tasting at the end of cook time and adding sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes as desired. Start with just a little sugar, though, a half teaspoon at most, and add gradually as desired, stirring well and tasting each time.
- Store leftovers in the fridge in a tightly covered container for up to 4 days. Warm up on the stove or on the microwave until it’s heated through.
- Make Ahead Idea: Make a double batch of sauce and freeze half to use later. Store it in a freezer container for up to a month. Thaw overnight in the fridge for best results.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
A great use of leftover turkey. I used both dried and fresh herbs from our garden including a small amount of fresh sage. The carrot was new to me but added some depth. A definite add to my dinner list!
Yum! Thanks for sharing a photo!
sounds fabulous!
Thanks Denise!