Pasta with a mild sauce

I wasn’t quite sure what to call this dish, because it isn’t a classic bolognese, nor is it meat in the sort of sauce used for Polish „Greek-style fish”. Something in between, really.

It all started because I wanted to make a mild pasta dish for Ninka. And it turned out as usual: unfortunately, she realised that the grated stuff wasn’t meat or tomatoes. Admittedly, she didn’t identify it as carrot, just „something nasty”, but even though the dish was actually very good, she ate barely half.

Her only excuse is that she polished off a chocolate sweet bun on the way to my place.

But you know Ninka is an exceptionally picky individual, so you don’t have to take her verdicts on food entirely to heart. It turned out good, very good indeed. Of course, I wolfed down a double portion and deeply regret it. So, as I’ve already written… New Year’s resolutions make absolutely no sense.

So I’ll leave watching my calories until… tomorrow. In the meantime, I really do recommend this version of a mild bolognese.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 3 hours

Serves: 4 people

How many calories: if 4 of you eat it, it’ll go straight to four bottoms 😉

Ingredients for a sauce that’s a little bolognese and a little Polish „Greek-style fish”:

• 300 grams of minced turkey (thigh meat, not breast)
• 1.5 medium carrots
• 1 medium tart apple
• 2 small onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• half a medium kohlrabi
• 1 tin of peeled tomatoes (300 grams)
• 2 tablespoons of tomato purée
• fresh spinach leaves (to serve; they aren’t needed to make the sauce)
• salt
• freshly ground mixed peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon of sweet red paprika
• olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of dried herbes de Provence

Recipe for pasta with a mild sauce:

I finely chopped the garlic and onions. In a large frying pan (almost a wok, really), I heated olive oil and added freshly minced turkey thigh meat. I added two teaspoons of salt, a light sprinkling of freshly ground mixed peppercorns and a teaspoon of sweet red paprika. I stirred and added the chopped garlic and onion. I stirred again.

I fried it over a medium heat (5 – 6 on my scale of 1 – 10) for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, I finely grated the carrots and apple. I added them to the pan with the meat. I stirred. I fried the meat with the onion, garlic, apple and carrot for about 10 minutes, stirring quite often. Then I added the tomatoes and two tablespoons of tomato purée. I mixed thoroughly and added 1.5 glasses of boiled water. I stirred.

I reduced the heat (to 3 on my scale of 1 – 10) and fried it (well, by then I was really simmering it over a low heat) for 3 hours. After roughly 1.5 hours, I added more salt to taste, the herbes de Provence and the finely chopped half kohlrabi. Throughout those 3 hours, I stirred about every 5 minutes (if the sauce reduces too much, you can add a little water).

After 3 hours, the mild sauce is ready. You can serve it as I did, with pasta (I added the cooked pasta to the pan and mixed thoroughly), on a bed of spinach leaves. Enjoy!