Let’s make restaurant-worthy ground turkey meat sauce for spaghetti at home! This recipe is a lighter take on classic spaghetti meat sauce, made by simmering ground turkey with mixed vegetables, like carrots and bell peppers, canned tomatoes and herbs. The result is a hearty ground turkey pasta dinner with terrific depth of flavor. The sauce freezes wonderfully too!
Homemade spaghetti sauce is one of my ultimate favorite things to make and this turkey spaghetti recipe does not disappoint! Sure, you can go with the pre-made stuff in a pinch, but making it from scratch really isn’t that hard and the little bit of extra effort is totally worth it.
Most of my recipes are quick and easy and I have plenty of quick and simple dinner ideas for busy weeknights like my my easy ground turkey tacos. But this meal prep recipe takes a little time, simmered for depth of flavor. This ground turkey pasta is a lazy Sunday sauce that simmers and fills the house with the aroma of a delicious homemade meal that the whole family (even the picky eaters!) will love.
I’ve tried one pot spaghetti and have several recipes using jarred tomato sauces which all have their time and place but nothing compares to this family favorite. I like to freeze the leftover sauce for a quick weeknight dinner later on and am always grateful I did!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple recipe where you can sit back and relax while the sauce is simmering – it takes time but it’s an easy ground turkey dinner idea!
- Makes TONS of sauce to serve for company or to freeze and reheat later
- Flexible, pretty much foolproof, and easy to tweak based on what you have on hand
- Seasoning the turkey itself instead of just the sauce makes it so flavorful
- The recipe includes bell pepper and carrots to sneak some veggies in.
- It has rave reviews so it’s tried and true
featured review
This was delicious! I was afraid of the fennel…but it gave the sauce the best flavor! I didn’t have fresh oregano…I’m sure it would have been even better! Thanks so much..it’s a keeper!
-Vicki
Simple Ingredients
- Lean ground turkey: the turkey is the star of the show allowing you to eat delicious spaghetti without red meat. I used 85% lean turkey which I recommend.
- Turkey sausage links: sausage will provide a great kick of flavor, and similar to our ground turkey,. You can substitute for more a half pound of ground turkey though if you prefer since that’s easier.
- Olive oil: to cook the turkey and veggies in (can substitute avocado or another cooking oil)
- Aromatics and Veggies: bell peppers, carrots, onion and garlic add flavor and make it a full veggie filled meal.
- Crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste: Yes, all of these canned versions of tomatoes work together to bring your sauce to life!
- Seasonings: Worcestershire, crushed red pepper flakes, fennel seed, bay leaves, fresh basil, oregano and parsley and an optional bit of sugar. For the fresh herbs, you can substitute dried just use less and and add it earlier on with the meat. I’ve even substituted a few Tablespoons of Italian seasoning in place of the herbs and it turned out fine. Its delicious as written but you can and adjust to your own preferences or what you have on hand!
- Noodles: Serve it over noodles (can use gluten free or whole grain noodles) or roasted spaghetti squash to make it low-carb. OR use this sauce in any recipe calling for a meaty marinara sauce.
How to Make Turkey Spaghetti
- In a dutch oven or large sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat before adding chopped onion and peppers. Sauté onions and peppers for 2 – 3 minutes to soften.
- Add carrots, garlic, ground turkey, and turkey sausage and cook while breaking into small pieces with a spatula.
- Once you’ve mostly browned the turkey, add salt, pepper, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, and fennel.
- Add crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- Add chopped fresh herbs in the last 15 minutes of cooking. This is the time you’d want to boil the noodles too!
- Drain the al dente noodles (if using) and plate the pasta.
- Ladle sauce on top of noodles and garnish with additional chopped parsley and parmesan cheese if desired before serving over pasta.
Can I use another meat?
Of course! If you’re not set on a ground turkey pasta dinner and just want a spaghetti with meat sauce, you can substitute with ground chicken, ground beef, sausage, venison or whatever you prefer. You can also make the sauce vegetarian and/or serve over meatballs if desired.
Storage, Freezing Pasta Sauce and Meal Prep
Unless you are cooking for a crowd, you may want to freeze some of the sauce for a future meal.
This ground turkey spaghetti recipe was developed for meal prep and makes enough sauce to cover approximately two lbs. of uncooked spaghetti noodles. It was made this way since the sauce simmers for so long and becomes so delicious that you’ll want to have some stashed away!
Here are some general guidelines:
Refrigerator storage: Let sauce cool before plating in a tightly sealing container and storing in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezing: To freeze, allow sauce to cool completely and then ladle into airtight freezer safe containers and place in freezer. Sauce can be frozen for 3-6 months depending on the container type and how much air is removed.
Note: you can also reduce the quantity you make using the serving size adjustment tool in the recipe card, reducing from 12 servings to 6. If cutting the recipe in half, you can make it in a large skillet but make sure it has high walls to avoid splattering.
Additions and Substitutions
Additions and Substitutions:
- Red Wine: You can add half a cup of red wine to the turkey/veggie mix for more depth of flavor. If you do this, let meat simmer in the wine for a minute or two, before dumping the tomatoes in.
- Herbs: I use fresh herbs here, but you can sub in about 1/3 to 1/2 the amount if using dried. You can also sub for an Italian seasoning blend. If you do this, add the dried herbs in earlier with the tomatoes.
- Meatless: You can leave the turkey and sausage out and use this as meatless marinara sauce for recipes like my cabbage rolls with ground turkey.
- Diced tomatoes: for a chunkier sauce use plain or fire roasted diced tomatoes in place of one of the cans of tomato sauce.
- More hidden veggies: I added carrot and red pepper since they go unnoticed in the sauce. Feel free to add whatever veggies you prefer.
Spaghetti with Ground Turkey Meat Sauce
Equipment
- 2 Dutch oven or large pot one for spaghetti sauce and the other for the noodles
- 1 Spatula or wooden spoon
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. lean ground turkey
- 2 turkey sausage links casing removed and discarded (can substitute extra 1/2 lb. of ground turkey instead)
- 1 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 bell peppers seeded and chopped
- 1 large onion chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 large carrots peeled and finely minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
- 28. oz. can stewed tomatoes
- 15 oz. can tomato sauce
- 12 oz. tomato paste Two 6 oz. cans
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil or 1 1/2 Tbsp. dried (adjust to taste)
- 2 teaspoons fresh chopped oregano or 1 tsp. dried
- 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon sugar optional
- 32 ounces Spaghetti noodles see notes for quantity and meal prep
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add onion and peppers and cook for 2 – 3 minutes to soften.
- Add carrots, garlic, ground turkey, and turkey sausage and cook while breaking into small pieces with a spatula.
- While turkey is finishing browning, add salt, pepper, worcestershire, red pepper flakes, and fennel.
- Add crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and let simmer uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
- During the last 15 minutes of cooking time, add chopped fresh herbs. If sauce is too acidic, add sugar to taste (normally 1-2 teaspoons but I often leave it out). This is the time to boil the noodles too!
- If serving with pasta, drain and plate al dente pasta as the sauce finishes cooking.
- Ladle sauce onto pasta and garnish with additional chopped parsley and parmesan cheese if desired.
Notes
Storage: Let sauce cool before plating in a tightly sealing container and storing in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezing: To freeze, allow sauce to cool completely and then ladle into airtight freezer safe containers and place in freezer. Sauce can be frozen for 3-6 months depending on the container type. Gluten Free: You can use gluten free Worcestershire to make it a gluten free spaghetti sauce and serve with gluten free pasta.
Nutrition
did you make this recipe?
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Originally published February 20, 2015. Recipe remains the same but post content has been edited to provide more detail.
Comments & Reviews
I’m counting calories, so am assuming when you say each serving is 198 calories, the serving size is one cup? Just a guesstimate on my part without actually measuring it out.
Hi Mary – this makes an absolutely huge batch, enough to serve 12 people and the nutrition facts are for 1/12th of the recipe. Sorry, I did not measure it out so I’m not sure how much that is exactly.
Thank you so much for wonderful recipes! What I love about your website most of all is that you post not only great recipes and descriptions but also stunning photos of food! Have a nice day!
I love trying new recipes with vegetables with my kids. My daughter is the master at the food processor and Kitchenaid mixer. We also love baking low carb desserts from your site!
Happy to hear you and your kids like my recipes! I can’t wait to cook with my daughter when she’s big enough!:)
Well I thought I had bought ground turkey but instead bought sausage!! How could I have done that!! And thank you for the brown rice link, and yup that was the one!! Anyway I did make this tonight but instead of turkey I used ground beef! It was all I had and I wanted to make this so bad. But guess what – it was fantastic!! I know it would have been healthier with the turkey but this was, as my husband said — give it two yums!!! Thanks again
For a creamy style sauce … add 1/4 cup soft goat cheese.
Oh my lands! That sounds so incredibly good! Goat cheese would be such a great addition to this.
This is an awesome easy fall dinner! I love the contrasting textures and flavors.
NOT A GLUTEN FREE RECIPE! This recipe says it’s “naturally” gluten-free yet one of the ingredients is Worcester sauce which is made from wheat and is widely known as containing gluten. Obviously those of us cooking gluten-free can skip the Worcester sauce if we are aware it contains gluten. When printing recipes online, please review ingredients and don’t tout them as something they aren’t.
Good to know, thanks Denise! I’ll add that clarification in the recipe.
Actually, there is gluten free Worcester Sauce. I know this because my grand daughter can neither have wheat nor corn and I have purchase it.
The kind I buy is gluten free too (Lea & Perrins) so I assumed they all were. I’ll add a note in about that brand for others wondering the same thing! 🙂
I made this yesterday and my family absolutely LOVED it!!! This is a keeper and works within my Weight Watchers Freestyle program.
Thank you!
Lola
Oh good!!! Happy to hear it Lola! This is one of my all time favorites. And as an aside, I almost named my daughter Lola. 🙂
This was delicious! I was afraid of the fennel…but it gave the sauce the best flavor! I didn’t have fresh oregano…I’m sure it would have been even better! Thanks so much..it’s a keeper!
So glad you liked it Vicki! I have an oregano bush so I’m always looking for ways to use it. Dried works just fine too though if you use a little less than the recipe calls for.