Spanish Spaghetti with Olives

Need a fresh new take on spaghetti with meat sauce? Try this recipe with a Spanish twist! It's a great way to incorporate new and different flavors into an otherwise mundane weeknight dinner. It's very healthy for you as well - I found it on the Cooking Light website. I swapped out ground turkey for the ground beef because it's my preference and also decided to use canned tomatoes instead of jarred marinara sauce. First off, I was not raised to use jarred sauce, and second, it has no added sugar and all that junk in it - just tomatoes!

Shaun said this dish tasted like a kicked up version of American Chop Suey. For those of you who do not know what this is (I did not either until I met Shaun), it's a dish he grew up eating. In a nutshell, its ingredients consist of elbow macaroni and ground beef in tomato sauce. I understand his thought process. I personally think it is very similar to picadillo, a traditional dish in Latin American countries. Also delicious. The ingredients used in this dish are very different than what you might be used to, but they work great together.

Ingredients:
8 oz spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp crushed
red pepper
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

8 oz ground turkey
2 cups marinara sauce OR canned tomatoes
1/2 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives*
1/4 dry sherry
1 tbsp capers
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, divided

*If someone that you are cooking this for does not like olives (*ahem* Shaun), feel free to omit them until the end. I did not miss their saltiness in the tomato sauce but it was definitely a nice addition to the final product.

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; saute 4 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; saute 1 minute. Stir in oregano, celery salt, red and black pepper. Crumble turkey into pan; cook 5-7 minutes or until turkey is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in marinara sauce, olives, sherry, capers and 3 tbsp parsley. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Add spaghetti to sauce mixture. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tbsp parsley. Serves 3 or 4.
*depending on how much you eat!

I served this dinner with some crusty garlic bread and a salad with simple balsamic dressing on the side. It came together very easy plus I cheated and prepped ahead! While making dinner the night before, I cut up the onions and garlic and cooked the spaghetti and then stored them in the fridge. It helped so that when I went to make this dinner it only took about 20 minutes. Even if you don't want to do that, it's still easy enough to make after work.

Tutti Mangia!