Spaghetti Sauce

This delicious wonderful low fat tomato based spaghetti sauce will help keep your waistline trim. To provide protein while minimizing saturated fat, I use delicious Jennie-Oh Extra-Lean Italian Turkey Sausage. Olive oil, used to saute the vegetables, is a mono-saturated fat which raises healthy HDL cholesterol.

I serve the sauce over whole wheat pasta. You probably already know that all plain pasta is low calorie and low fat. Still, some people will warn you that the high glycemic index of white flour causes food cravings later in the evening. They probably aren't aware that eating the pasta with protein dramatically lowers its glycemic index! Better yet, the fiber in whole wheat noodles and vegetables also lower the glycemic index of the meal.

In fact, whole wheat pasta eaten with low fat protein and vegetables is one of the foods identified as most filling by nutritionist Barbara Rolls, Ph. D. You can read about other hunger satisfying foods and food combinations in "Volumetrics: Feel Full on Fewer Calories".

For a complete meal, precede the spaghetti with a green salad. The spaghetti and meat sauce is so low fat, I always use Newman's Italian Salad Dressing. That's right, I use a full fat salad dressing. I've noticed that oil and vinegar dressings don't cling like creamy dressings. So, I can toss 1 C of lettuce leaves with less than 1 T of dressing. Any more than that just drains to the bottom of the salad bowl. You can use any dressing you prefer!

Lucia

Sauce

Makes approximately 16 cups, or twenty two 3/4 cup servings.

1 1/2 lbs. Jennie-Oh Extra Lean Italian Turkey Sausage.
2 T olive oil.
4 cloves garlic minced finely.
1 large onion chopped coarsely.
1 large green pepper chopped chopped coarsely.
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes.
2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes.
2 6 oz cans of tomato paste.
1 C red wine (optional)
1 t. crushed red pepper (or more to taste.)
2 T Italian Seasonings (or more to taste.)
1 t pepper. (or more to taste.)
salt to taste. (I add none because there is enough in the tomatoes.)

Remove Italian sausage from casings and break into bite size pieces. Heat a large non-stick frying pan until a drop of water bounces on the surface. Fry sausage in small enough batches to avoid crowding the pan. There should be space between each sausage. Turn sausage as it cooks. Remove sausage from pan and drain on paper towels. (There should be very little fat.)

Add 1 T olive oil to fry pan. Add garlic to pan and sauté until limp. To avoid bitterness, be careful not to scorch. Remove garlic, and add to sausage. Add the second tablespoon of oil and onions. Sauté until limp. Add green peppers to onions, and sauté until limp. Turn off heat.

Transfer all ingredients except salt to a large pot suitable for simmering. Heat almost to boiling stirring occasionally; turn down heat, cover with lid and simmer for approximately 1/2 hour. Adjust seasoning to taste adding salt if required. ( The salt and seasonings from the sausage flavor the tomato sauce during cooking. So it's best to wait before adding the final seasonings.)

Label with contents and date.

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Enter number of people you are serving here: people. If you are serving this as a side dish, cut the portions in half.

ounces whole wheat spaghetti noodles.
C sauce.
T grated Parmesan cheese.

Heat pasta sauce on stove top or microwave oven. Meanwhile, fill a large pot with water and heat to a rolling boil. Add noodles, stir to prevent noodles from sticking. Set timer to 12 minutes. Drain. Place noodles in a serving dish. Pour sauce on noodles and serve immediately. Sprinkle each serving with 1 T Parmesan cheese.

Food Pyramid Information

If you are following the recommendations from my nutrition estimator, each serving of pasta with tomato sauce contains:

1 lean meat from turkey.
1 vegetable from tomatoes and green peppers.
zero tips. The fat in this recipe is typical for prepared grains.
2 whole wheat grain from the pasta.
1/2 whole milk dairy from the Parmesan cheese.

Shopping tips:

I used "Bella Terra" organic whole wheat macaroni, imported from Italy. It's available at the local Eagle grocery store in the Chicago suburbs. My family doesn't notice the difference between whole wheat and white pasta. Other brands are suitable, and you should use any whole wheat pasta you can find.
Jennie-Oh Italian Sausage is available in grocery stores; buy the extra lean if you can find it. Turkey sausages labeled "lean" may contain ground skin, and are higher in fat. If the turkey isn't labeled lean or extra lean, it's probably just as high fat as regular pork or beef sausage! (Check the nutrition label if in doubt.)

Lucia