Mood:
rushed
Topic: Fun with Recipes
Quick Turkey Spaghetti
Ah, what would food be with Recipes? Why just a bunch of ingredients, laying all over the damn place, of course. So I guess it's safe to say that we can all agree the recipe is important, and I have certainly found them useful, at least as a guide line. So with this in mind, we will journey forth.
This is a recipe that was created by my lovely wife, and although simple and quick, is quite tasty, and perfect for busy people. Now, admittedly, the entire meal is not from scratch, but that is really part of the charm, and there will be a "from scratch" recipe in the near future, so don't panic. Ingredients are as follows:
package of dry pasta (I prefer whole wheat spaghetti for dietary and nutritional reasons, but to each their own)
ground turkey (again, pick the fat content that you prefer)
garlic, or garlic powder (your choice. If I have time, I prefer fresh garlic, but sometimes garlic powder has to do)
Italian seasoning of your choice (I recommend oregano or basil)
onion, or onion powder (see garlic above)
bottled spaghetti sauce (brand of your choice, but I would suggest you try some of the organic brands)
red wine (this is an optional ingredient that I rarely use, but the upside is it improves the taste of the sauce and then there is an open bottle of wine that needs to to be finished)
I bet that you can already see where this is going, but since I'm relaying the recipe, I'm going to tell you anyway. First, find a nice large skillet. The type isn't important (at least not to me), but that it is large enough to hold all the sauce ingredients is. I use a large, non-stick skillet I got from Pampered Chef. You can use whatever you have. A quick aside here: Cooking is largely a subjective activity. What that means is that I can tell you what works for me, but your mileage may vary. I may brown my ground turkey over medium heat, you may prefer high. I say, do what makes you happy. You have to eat the food, after all. Now back to our previous programming.
Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground turkey, or beef, or whatever ground dead animal you prefer. I'm on a diet right now, so I like turkey. When I'm not on a diet, I might prefer beef, but I suppose that's another story all together. This is one of those subjective times I was speaking about earlier. Season the meat as you see fit. Add garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, basil, whatever you like on your meat. I prefer garlic powder, black pepper, some sea salt and oregano. The wife prefers enough garlic to knock over people walking by the house. (I jest, I jest) Anyway you choose to go, it's hard to go wrong, although it might take you a couple of times preparing the meal to truly fine tune the flavors to your own tastes. Don't forget to take into account the tastes that your sauce will bring to the party later as well. After seasoning, brown your ground. Or cook the meat until it's browned, but not burnt, and then drain the excess grease from it.
If you have chose the path of real onions and garlic, then remove the now browned ground turkey from the skillet, set is aside, and add the chopped onions and garlic. Cook them until they soften slightly, then add the meat back into the skillet.
Now add the sauce of your choice to the skillet containing the browned turkey (and onions and garlic if you went that way). Now is also the time to add red wine to taste, if your tastes lean that way. You want to heat the sauce over medium heat, stirring periodically, until it just starts to bubble, then lower it to low until time to serve.
At this point, I like to make the pasta, as per the directions on the packaging. This is personal preference, but I also do it for a reason. You could, and some do, make the pasta while working on the sauce, and dinner will be ready quicker, but if you wait to make the pasta til the sauce is on low,it will have an extra ten minutes or so (depending on your individual pasta cooking times) to simmer and mingle and such, and the longer a sauce has to mingle, the better it usually is. This especially applies to leftovers the next day.
Once the pasta is ready, you are ready to eat. You can pretty much scale this meal to serve from one person to quite a few, just scale the size of the cooking ware, and the amount of the Ingredients. Spaghetti is quick, fun, flavorful, and just all around good to eat, and I always recommend it, as well as try to eat it at least once a week.
Posted by the Captain
at 12:37 PM CST
lazy
Anyway, on to the recipe. The wife says this is now her favorite food, and I have to say, I was pleased with the way the taste came out, but I'm still not completely satisied with the consistency. They were a little come aparty for my liking, but really, taste is everything at the final accounting. It went as follows: