Turkey Sausage Marinara

I was making pasta for dinner and decided to spice things up a bit by making a turkey sausage marinara sauce rather than my usual meat sauce.  Sausage is another one of those mysterious foods for me; I never knew what transformed ground meat into sausage, and assumed it required some skill I was lacking.  Instead I learned that it's just a matter of seasoning, so I followed a basic turkey sausage recipe used to make breakfast sausage and sought out to make Turkey Sausage Marinara.

First I prepared the turkey sausage by mixing the ground turkey, salt, fennel seed, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice together.  I left out the sage because I don't have any on hand, and added in Italian seasoning and minced onion.  Then I browned the sausage in a large skillet until it was fully cooked.

I poured the spaghetti sauce over the finished sausage and let it cook until it was heated through.

I made some vegetable spaghetti to go with it, and dinner was set.

The sausage was so good and the seasoning was tasty but not at all overwhelming in flavor.  It was a nice change from spaghetti mixed regular ground turkey meat sauce and I'll definitely be using this recipe again for other dishes.  Now I can't wait to try making turkey sausage patties for breakfast!

Turkey Sausage Marinara Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound ground turkey
1 tablespoon mixed Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 jar spaghetti sauce


Instructions:

Combine ground turkey, Italian seasoning mix, salt, fennel seed, pepper, minced onion, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice and mix well.  Brown seasoned turkey sausage in a large skillet, then drain fat.  Add marinara sauce and stir.  Serve over cooked pasta.