Meat Sauce for Pasta

We've been having winter this week. Which for us means lots of rain, wind, cold, and more rain. This is another meal that's great for this kind of weather. Pretty simple comfort food for a cold, rainy night.

Meat Sauce for Pasta

2 tsp Olive Oil
1 Large Onion, Diced
1 Pound Ground Turkey
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced or Pressed
Salt and Pepper
2 tsp Dried Basil
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
1 28-Ounce Can Tomato Sauce
12 Ounces Button Mushrooms, Sliced
Carrot and/or Zucchini, Finely Grated (If you need to sneak veggies into your family)
Parmesan Cheese (Optional for Garnish)

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking up with a spatula or wooden spoon until no longer pink. If your turkey is very fatty, spoon off some of the excess fat at this point. You want about 1 Tbsp of fat left in the pan with the turkey and onions. Add the garlic and salt and pepper to taste, cook, stirring, for about one minute. Add in the dried herbs, and stir to coat the meat and onion mixture. Add the tomato sauce and the sliced mushrooms. At this point, you can add in finely grated summer squash and/or carrots if it's summer and you have an abundance. Your family will never know. Unless, of course, they happen to walk into the kitchen and find you grating a zucchini over the sauce pot. Then they will know. Then they will strongly deny the fact that you have been grating zucchini into the pasta sauce for years. But that may be a topic for another entry...Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for at least 3o minutes; the longer the better. Serve over the pasta of your choice. Garnish with parmesan cheese as desired.

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