Ina Garten's Secret For The Absolute Best Turkey Lasagna
Turkey lasagna is a hearty classic with enough meat, tomato sauce, and piles of cheese to fill up the entire family. And beloved celebrity chef Ina Garten has a simple yet flavorful tip to take your turkey lasagna to the next level: use turkey sausage for your protein.
In her turkey lasagna, Ina Garten likes to use 1 ½ pounds of Italian turkey sausage. Importantly, one half of the turkey sausage she adds is sweet, while the other half is spicy. Sweet and spicy is a classic culinary combination that will elevate your turkey lasagna by giving it a more complex flavor profile. You also get the same rich, herbal notes from the turkey sausage that you would with beef or pork. Garten recommends crumbling the turkey sausage and sautéing it in olive oil with chopped onions and garlic before adding tomatoes for your sauce.
You can use ground turkey as a substitute
Some grocery stores may not carry both varieties of turkey sausage. However, since turkey sausage is simply turkey that has been ground and blended with sausage seasonings then stuffed into a casing, it's easy to make at home. Plus, Ina Garten's version calls for crumbled turkey sausage, so you can skip casing the meat.
Marinara is a classic sauce choice for lasagna. Although Garten calls for you to make your own tomato sauce, she also claims it's fine to use store-bought, and that extends to jarred pasta sauces. The world of jarred pasta sauces has come a long way. Grocery stores carry a range of quality jarred marinara sauces (check out our ranking for help choosing), so you can still cook a great turkey lasagna while cutting a corner or two. Garten specifically recommends Rao's marinara, which is not only good on its own but can also serve as a base for more complex sauces.