This is my interpretation of lasagna from a recipe I got from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. She has been my fill-in since Paula Deen fell from Food Network grace, I still love you Paula! Like Paula,  Ree’s “who the heck needs to be on a diet” approach to cooking speaks to my comfort-food soul. Although I do have to remember that she lives on a large, working cattle farm, which is far different from my almost sedentary (I’m working on that) lifestyle. So I substitute and tweak where I can, without compromising on flavor.

I actually think this was the first dish I ever cooked where I used ground turkey to replace ground beef. I needed a whole bunch of painting done in my house, so I decided to have a “paint party”. It’s a really nice way to get people to come do a days worth of work for you for free (thanks guys, great job). You find out real quick who really loves you, kind of like asking people to help you move. I had about 10 people to feed, so lasagna sounded like a good idea. Except, one of my cousins doesn’t eat beef.

So I made a whole pan, with turkey, just for her. After doing a side-by-side comparison and noticing they both tasted the same but the turkey felt lighter, and realizing that no one else could tell the difference either, I was sold! I could get the same taste, without the heaviness of beef, that’s a win-win. I started using ground turkey for everything that called for beef, well almost everything. Still nothing beats a good beef burger…yum.

Turkey Lasagna

Recipe by KikiCourse: EntreeCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy, Medium

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

350

kcal

Ingredients

• 1 10 oz. package of lasagna noodles

• 1 1/2 – 2 lb. ground turkey

• 1 lb. hot or sweet turkey sausage

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 2  6 oz. cans tomato paste

• 1  28 oz. can whole tomatoes or 2 14.5 oz. cans

• Salt and pepper

• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning blend

• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

• 12 basil leaves, chiffonade (stack leaves, roll them up and cut into thin strips)

• ¼ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

• 3 cups low fat cottage cheese

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 1 pound mozzarella cheese (shredded)

• 1 cup Parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)

Directions

• First you need to preheat the oven to 350ºF and cook the pasta according to directions on the package, don’t forget to salt the water.
• Heat about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, then added the ground turkey, the sausage, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked until browned and fully cooked, then add the garlic. If you don’t want to use turkey, feel free to use ground beef and pork sausage or whatever kind of sausage you like. If you’re using beef and/or pork, you’ll need to drain off the fat before adding the tomatoes.
• After the meat is cooked, add the whole tomatoes and the juice and both cans of the tomato paste. I crush the whole tomatoes up with my hand, be careful, they squirt juice at you.
• Pellentesque fermentum dolor. Aliquam quam lectus, facilisis auctor, ultrices ut, elementum vulputate, nunc.

Notes

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