Hasta La Pasta

I think I have just made the best pasta sauce I’ve ever made.  Granted, I had help from the nice folks at Classico, but it’s what I added to the sauce that really made it, I think.  To cut back on fat, I used ground turkey for this meat sauce, instead of beef and only used half, creating more volume by adding chunks of quartered mushrooms and onion.

• 1 jar of Classico Cabernet Marinara
• 1/2 lb extra lean ground turkey
• 1 container of white mushrooms, quartered
• 1 white onion, cut in chunks
• 2 cloves of minced fresh garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1/2 cup fat free parmesan or romano
• 1 or 2 tbsp each of basil, oregano and crushed red pepper (to taste)

Cut the onions in chunks while heating the oil in the pan to medium high heat.  Once the oil is hot, start browning the turkey and the onions (don’t let the onions get too carmelized—turn down your heat if you see this happening) and add your minced garlic.  While this is going on, quarter your mushrooms.

Once all that’s going, dump in your jar of sauce, add the spices, cheese, and wine.  Incorporate it all, then reduce your heat to low and cover. Let simmer as long as you want, checking on it periodically. The longer you slow-simmer, the richer the flavor becomes since the veggies and meat absorb the flavors.

Serve with pasta of your choice. Remember portion sizes… I don’t buy traditional spaghetti because unless you have a pasta measure, it’s hard to gauge what one serving is.  So I’m using farfalle (bowtie) pasta, which is easy to control portion sizes with a measuring cup.

This recipe makes roughly 8 generous servings of sauce at 4 points a serving, according to my calculations on Weight Watchers Online. (for the sauce only—pasta is additional).

This stuff is so good, it’s taking great restraint to not eat it directly from the pot.  You could easily eliminate the meat, which would probably cut the points in half.

Yum.