Name: Easy Italian Pasta Skillet
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 pound ground turkey 93/7 (sausage, ground chicken or beef can be substituted); 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 cup chopped onion; 3 cloves garlic, chopped; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon dried basil; 1 teaspoon dried oregano; 2 cups rotini pasta, uncooked; 2 14 ounce can crushed tomatoes; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; 1 cup grated mozzarella cheese (or parmasan)

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We made this Easy Italian Pasta Skillet with lean ground turkey but you could use sausage, ground beef or ground chicken. A simple recipe that your family will love and you will make over and over again!

Ever get that carby feeling? Like you need some comfort food and you need it now? We wanted to make an easy dish that wouldn’t break the fat-o-meter but still have tons of flavor.

We started with ground turkey, fresh chopped onion and garlic. Added tomato puree, our fave kinda canned tomato sauce, and of course cheese!

How to get the most flavor from your ground turkey?

Start by using a cast iron skillet if you have one. Rachel and I both own this large skillet from Lodge and can’t imagine a kitchen without one! Cast iron browns your meat, more color, more flavor!
We prefer a ground turkey blend of 93/7 in lieu of ground turkey breast, which tastes like paper towels to me :).
Use fresh onion and garlic, a big pinch of salt and black pepper. It’s amazing how simple ingredients taste so good! Once all browned TASTE TEST…more salt? More pepper? Remember your canned tomatoes have salt too so don’t over do.

Cook your pasta while the sauce simmers and you can have this on the table in less than 30 minutes!

What else can we add to this Easy Italian Pasta Skillet?

This recipe is a vessel for just about anything you have hanging around. A few suggestions:

add chopped carrot and celery along with the onion
stir in chopped zucchini or broccoli during the last 5 minutes of cooking
sub sausage, ground beef or ground chicken for the turkey
top with feta, ricotta or any cheese you have!
serve along side a fresh green salad and crusty bread for a perfect dinner!

This makes 6 big servings. We shared with friends and had it for dinner twice. I can only imagine what it would do to that lunch box!

We have over 150 Fast and Fresh Dinner recipes and you can see them all HERE!

Two of our favorites are this 20 Minute Shrimp and Orzo Skillet where everything, including the pasta is cooked in the same pan!

or this Gnocchi Sausage and Spinach Soup that is one of the most popular recipes on this blog! 30 minutes and you will see why!

To getting our carbs on!

Clink!

Kathi

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