Easy Italian Sausage and Peppers featuring Turkey-Sausage Meatballs in Homemade Sauce

Written by on in Dinner

Sweet Italian sausage has a distinctive, delicious flavor in large part due to the fennel seeds that are used. Given store-bought sausage is not very heart-healthy, I modified it by taking the same seasoning base and adding it to low-fat ground turkey meat (or you can use ground chicken). I made them into “meat balls”, but I have also served it as a loose ground meat. Since I had way too many farm-fresh tomatoes, I made a tomato sauce from scratch that was super simple. In the picture, I served it over red lentil pasta. My kids loved it!

Easy Italian Sausage and Peppers featuring Turkey-Sausage Meatballs in Homemade Sauce
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Easy Italian Sausage and Peppers featuring Turkey-Sausage Meatballs in Homemade Sauce

Recipe by The Cooking LawyerCourse: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

  • Homemade Tomato Sauce

  • 2 lbs fresh, ripe tomatoes, stems removed and cut into large chunks

  • 1 large onion, cut into thick slices

  • 2 gloves garlic, cut into large chunks

  • 1 tsp Italian seasonings

  • Turkey-Sausage Meatballs

  • 1 lbs ground turkey or chicken (low fat)

  • 2 tsp fennel seed

  • 1 tsp garlic salt

  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

  • 1 onion, thinly sliced

  • 1 bell pepper, thinly slice

  • Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

  • Homemade Tomato Sauce
  • Slice the onion into thick slices. Because you will use an emersion blender later, you can leave the pieces larger.
  • Add onion to a pot, and put the burner on low. Use some nonstick cooking spray and add the onions to the pot. Sweat the onions down while you proceed to the next step.
  • Cut the tomatoes into large chunks. They do not need to be finely diced as they will boil down. I like to add each tomato to the pot as I finish.
  • Bring the tomato mixture to a boil. Cut the garlic cloves into chunks. Then add the cloves of garlic to the pot.
  • Stir frequently so the tomatoes do not burn. Once they are boiling, simmer about twenty minutes to allow the water to boil out of the sauce.
  • After 20 minutes, use an emersion to crush any remaining chunks of tomato. Add the Italian seasonings.
  • I let the sauce continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thickened.
  • Turkey-Sausage Meatballs
  • Preheat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (for easy clean up).
  • In a bowl, mix the ground turkey with fennel seed, garlic salt, and peppers. Mix until seasonings are combined.
  • Using a mini-ice scream scooper, scoop and form the ground meat mixture into balls and place on parchment-lined cooking sheet.
  • Bake meatballs at 425 for about 12-15 minutes or until cooked throughout. The larger your meatball, the more it takes to cook it through.
  • Sausage Meatballs and Peppers and Onions
  • While the meatballs are baking, slice bell pepper into thin strips.
  • Spray sauté pan with nonstick cooking spray. On low heat, sweat the bell peppers down.
  • Slice onion into thin strips to match the thickness of your bell peppers.
  • Add onion to sauté pan and sweat onions and bell peppers down.
  • Once softened, serve the onions and peppers with the homemade sauce and sausage-meatballs.

Notes

  • If you are short on time, substitute store-bought sauce. The meatballs cook up super quick so it is an easy week night meal.

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