(Mostly) Turkey Bolognese

John had the day off on Friday and because he is wonderful- he spent the majority of it cleaning/repairing/projecting around the house for me. I told him that I would prepare the dinner of his choice as a reward. He requested pappardelle bolognese and his mom's chocolate pie. (I made one big pie this time.) With the holidays rapidly approaching, I wanted to lighten it up a bit so I made my variation of Michael Chiarello's Chicken Bolognese recipe. I love his approach because the recipe comes together in 30 minutes or so (versus your simmered all day kind of sauce which is great too) and it has all the the flavor without all of the fat. Ingredients: 1 lb of ground turkey 0.5 lbs of Italian pork sausage (I used hot) 1 medium yellow onion (chopped) 4 large cloves of garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon of dried, crushed rosemary (or crush it with your hands) 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (or to your taste) 1/3 cup of white wine 1 cup (a little more) of chicken stock roughly 2 cups of jarred marinara or tomato sauce (I use marinara if I have it) 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley 1 pound of fresh or dried pasta (Per the recipe via the link above, definitely use the porcini mushrooms if you have them on hand- I didn't this time.) In a heavy bottomed pot or skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Sautee the onions 3-4 minutes or until almost tender. Next add the turkey and sausage (turn the heat up a bit to med-high) and cook until browned, breaking it up with a spoon as it cooks. As soon as its browned all over, add the garlic and herbs and cook for one minute longer. Add the white wine and cook, stirring to scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, until its almost entirely evaporated. Next goes the chicken stock and marinara/tomato sauce. Cook everything together over medium low heat for 10-15 minutes or until the flavors have come together. Use chicken stock to thin the sauce to the desired consistency. At this point, I use my immersion blender to break down the larger chunks of turkey and sausage a bit more. I just pulse it a few times. I like the sauce chunky but to have an even consistency. (You can also do this with a few pulses of the food processor if you don't have an immersion blender- or you can leave it as is if you like.) I wait to stir in the fresh parsley just before serving. I made fresh pappardelle pasta using the pasta machine John got me for Christmas last year (he claims I don't use it enough). Pappardelle are the widest of the pasta noodles to my knowledge, roughly an inch wide. Pappardele with bolognese was one of John's go-to orders when we were in Tuscany for our honeymoon 3.5 years ago. Something about the wide noodles scooping up the chunky sauce just works. Transfer the cooked pasta into the pot with the sauce as soon as the pasta is done cooking. Reserve a ladle or two of the pasta cooking water and use that to thin the sauce if necessary once the pasta has been tossed together with the sauce. (The noodles tend to soak up some of the liquid and you want to be sure you have a silky sauce versus a sticky one.) Serve with a generous sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese and a bit more parsley if you like. Confession.. I did not take any pictures (we were visiting and drinking wine with my parents while cooking and I forgot.) this picture was borrowed from the Internet but I assure you mine looked very similar except that I was less stingy with the cheese.)