I love this dish. It is warm, filling, and always a crowd pleaser. I use a combination of turkey and sirloin, but this can work with any meat of your liking. Every year after Thanksgiving, I chop up our leftover turkey and use that instead of the ground meat and the flavor is out of this world. I prefer to serve the sauce over a fresh, thick noodle.
1 pound ground turkey meat
1 pound ground sirloin
3 large carrots
3 celery stalks
1 small onion
3 garlic cloves, peeled
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 cup of milk (If you are kosher, you can swap out the milk for 1 1/2 cups of jarred tomato sauce)
1 cup of red wine
2 plum tomatoes, diced
kosher salt/pepper
olive oil
1. Wash and peel carrots, then roughly chop them along with the celery and onion.
2. Place carrots, celery, onion and garlic in a food processor, and pulse until vegetables are finely chopped and combined.
3. Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil, and add the vegetable mixture. Add two tablespoons of kosher salt and stir for 5 minutes.
4. Add ground turkey and sirloin into the pot, along with two more tablespoons of kosher salt, and two teaspoons of pepper. Stir the meat with a wooden spoon until it is mixed together with the vegetables.
5. Remove the thyme leaves from the stems and add into the pot.
6. Continue stirring until all of the meat is browned.
7. Add the milk, red wine and diced tomatoes. Stir, and bring the sauce to a boil.
8. Once boiling, bring it down to a simmer and cook for one hour, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste.
This sauce taste best after a day of resting, so allow the pot to cool for an hour, and place in the refrigerator overnight. Re-heat and serve with pasta.