Red Lentil Turkey Bolognese Sauce by Foodie’s Chef Laura Brennan

April 12, 2018

Winter is not quite over……. sigh.

So, there’s still time for one more Bolognese sauce.

This one’s a bit lighter, using ground turkey and red lentils in lieu of the usual suspects. There’s no cream and a bit of bacon, only if you fancy it. It cooks up more quickly than its more traditional counterpart and is best served over a shaped-pasta (‘macaroni’) instead of a long pasta (‘spaghetti’). And, while fresh-made pasta certainly has a place at the Italian table, this sauce needs the ‘al dente’ bite of dried durum wheat pasta. Choose your favorite shape.

Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 1 hrs
Yields: 5-6 servings using 1-pound pasta

Ingredients

7-8 ounces whole shallots, skin on

1 stalk celery

10-ounce package cremini (brown) mushrooms

2-3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic (from 3-5 whole peeled cloves of garlic)

Optional: 2 ounces cooked, chopped bacon (cooked from 4 ounces raw bacon)

1-pound ground turkey (dark meat ground turkey preferred)

8-ounces red lentils

½ cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cans tomato puree (28 ounces each)

2 ‘tomato cans’ cold water (or chicken stock), plus more as needed

Kosher salt

Fresh ground black pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¾ teaspoon caraway seeds, chopped finely

2 teaspoons ground cumin seed

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

¼- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon honey, plus more to taste, if desired

1 pound of your favorite imported, durum wheat pasta

1-cup grated, parmesan cheese

3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (from ½ bunch Italian parsley leaves)

Directions

1. Heat a Dutch Oven over medium heat and add 2-3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the minced shallots, the minced celery and the minced garlic to the pot. Sauté, stir often and cook until softened and translucent, about 5-10 minutes. Keep flame low, do not let the aromatics (the vegetables) burn.

2. Add the mushrooms and stir to combine. Season with a bit of kosher salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes or until mushroom juices begin to release. Add the chopped bacon, if using. Add the tomato paste and let cook for a few minutes, stir often.

3. Add the rinsed lentils to the pot. Mix to combine.

4. Add the ground turkey meat to the pot. Cook and break-up meat with the back of a spoon. Add another bit of kosher salt at this point—to season the cooking turkey. Add the white wine and cook to reduce by half. (this will go very quickly—in about 1 minute)

5. Add more olive oil to the pot if the mix seems to be sticking.

6. Add the 2 cans of tomato puree to the pot. Now add the water (or chicken stock). How much water/stock you add will depend on the thickness of the tomato puree you are using; they vary greatly. You want enough liquid for the mix to be able to simmer for an hour and cook the lentils.

7. The final texture of the sauce will be a personal judgement—a decision made by remembering the thickness of other Bolognese/tomato/marinara sauces you have made.

8. Add the dried thyme, chopped caraway seeds, ground cumin and ground coriander to the pot. Stir to combine.

9. Let the Bolognese simmer for about 45 minutes or more. Stir often, especially to keep the lentils from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

10. Taste and adjust seasoning with kosher salt and ground pepper.

Add a pinch (or more) of cayenne and a touch of honey. Be careful with these last two seasonings—add small amounts at a time; it’s easy to add more. It’s difficult to correct if you have used too much of either!

To serve

Warm a big serving bowl.

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water. Drain pasta, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking water. Put the drained pasta back into the (still hot) cooking pot. Add enough Bolognese sauce to coat. Adjust thickness with some of the reserved cooking water, if necessary. Add some grated cheese to the pasta and toss to coat. Add the chopped parsley. Add the ‘dressed’ pasta to the warmed serving bowl when ready to bring to the table.

Bring extra grated cheese to the table.

(n.b. This recipe will make extra sauce to use another day. Cool and refrigerate for another meal.)

Mise-en-place**

^ Peel the shallots, cut into smaller pieces. Finely mince the smaller pieces to yield a heaping ½ cup.

^ Cut the celery stalk in half. Cut each half-piece into 1/8^th-inch strips and then finely mince the strips.

^ Peel, chop and finely mince/mash the garlic cloves.

^ Using a small paring knife, cut off the bottom woody- ends of the mushroom stems. Fill a bowl with cold water and swirl the mushrooms around in the water to remove the dirt. Don’t soak the mushrooms, rather quickly clean them. Lift the mushrooms out of the now-dirty water and onto paper towels and let air-dry for 5-10 minutes.

^ Finely chop the mushrooms into very small pieces. Alternately, chop-pulse in a food processor. Do not over-process. They should NOT be processed into a wet mushroom paste!

^ Rinse the lentils briefly, in a strainer under cold running water.

^ Cook the bacon, if using, until barely crispy. Drain on paper towels. Rough chop when cool enough to handle.

^ Gather the herbs and spices together into a small bowl. Finely chop the caraway seeds with a chef’s knife. Add to the herbs/spices.

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