Cheesy Ground Turkey Pasta
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This cheesy Ground Turkey Pasta is made in one-pot in under 45 minutes. Made with pantry staples, it’s high in protein and delicious!
When we want a quick, easy dinner we always turn to simple one-pot pasta dishes.
This cheesy ground turkey pasta dish is delicious, high in protein, and so easy to reheat for leftovers the next day.
The flavors of the tomato sauce, Italian herbs, and cheese elevate the ground turkey and make this a delicious meal that’s ready in under 45 minutes.
Tyler’s Tips for the Best Cheesy Turkey Pasta
- Grate your own fresh mozzarella rather than using pre-shredded mozzarella to have the best texture and taste without any fillers.
- Make sure the pan is hot before adding the meat. This creates the best flavor when incorporating the rest of the ingredients as they meld together.
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Ingredients:
substitutions
Olive Oil: You could use avocado oil, but we really recommend extra virgin olive oil.
Lean Ground Turkey: The ground turkey is leaner than ground beef and lower in fat content. Ground chicken, ground beef, and ground lamb can also be used in place of the turkey if you can’t find it.
Broth: Any broth or stock (broth and stock are the same) can be used in any soup recipe. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no salt broth.
Onion and Garlic: We like the flavor of the fresh onion and garlic but dried onion and garlic powder can work in place of fresh. We recommend 1 teaspoon of garlic and onion powder.
Spices: Dried basil and dried oregano add that italian seasoning flavor to this recipe, Dried parsley would be a good option if needed. Fresh herbs could also work but we recommend adding these at the end so they don’t lose their flavor.
Pasta: We used dried penne pasta but feel free to use other shapes like rigatoni, fusilli, bowties, rotini pasta, and cavatelli. We did not test this with gluten-free pasta but it should work ok regardless. Whole wheat pasta would be a great option as well.
Marinara Sauce: A low sodium marinara sauce is ideal for this ground turkey pasta recipe. Crushed tomatoes will also work if you don’t have marinara sauce or tomato sauce on hand.
Cheese: The mozzarella and parmesan cheese are recommended. Asiago cheese can be used in place of parmesan cheese, we don’t recommend substituting the mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella or blocks of mozzarella will work great.
How to Make Ground Turkey Pasta
- Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat, add turkey, and cook for 5 minutes while breaking it apart. Stir in onion, garlic, basil, oregano, and red pepper, then cook for another 4 minutes.
- Stir in pasta, water, and marinara, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat (about 5 minutes). Reduce heat to medium and cook covered for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat, uncover, and let the pasta sit for 5 minutes. Stir in cheeses, then serve warm with extra Parmesan on top.
What to Serve with This Pasta
This pasta is a complete meal in itself (you can garnish with fresh basil for added flavor), but it also would be delicious with a loaf of Italian bread, garlic rolls, or a delicious side salad or veggies on busy weeknights!
Here are some of our favorite salads:
storage
Storing: This will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: We don’t recommend freezing this recipe. Pasta can get really mush when reheated.
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stovetop. It might be helpful to add a splash of broth to the pan when reheating on the stovetop!
other One Pot Pasta recipes:
Ground Turkey Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound ground turkey
- ½ cup minced yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ pound dried penne pasta
- 1 ½ cups low sodium marinara sauce
- 2 ½ cups water
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the turkey to the pot and cook for 5 minutes, breaking it apart with a spatula as it cooks.
- Once the turkey has cooked for 5 minutes, add the onion, garlic, basil, oregano, and red pepper to the pot. Stir together and cook for an additional 4 minutes.
- Add the pasta, water, and marinara sauce to the pot. Stir together well and cover the pot.
- Turn the heat to high and bring the pot to a boil. It will take about 5 minutes to come to a boil.
- Once the pasta is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook covered for 6 minutes or half the amount of time the pasta package recommends. Make sure to stir every few minutes to prevent scorching the bottom of the pot.
- After the pasta has cooked, remove the pot from the heat. Remove the lid and let the pasta sit for 5 minutes. The pasta will continue to cook and absorb the liquid.
- Stir in the mozzarella and Parmesan.
- Serve warm, topped with extra Parmesan!
Quite tasty! I love your one pot dinners!
This was so delicious and very easy to make, the leftovers the next day were even tastier!!!!
This is absolutely one of the best recipes I’ve ever made. Every recipe on this site so far has been a banger!!! Between this and the red pepper chicken orzo, I’ve got some great additions to my weekly rotation! Thank you clean eating couple for sharing such amazing recipes with us 😋 I’ve never left a review on a recipe website before but couldn’t resist!
This is absolutely one of the best recipes I’ve ever made. Every recipe on this site so far has been a banger!!! Between this and the red pepper chicken orzo, I’ve got some great additions to my weekly rotation! Thank you clean eating couple for sharing such amazing recipes with us 😋 I’ve never left a review on a recipe website before but couldn’t resist!
We made our first recipe out of the new cookbook. Its another 5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 star meal by The Clean Eating Couple and it was made in 1 pot in just about 30 minutes. I like this better than their homemade hamburger helper. Gasp! This has a bit of a lasagna taste to it. So good and it made soooooo much we have plenty of leftovers! You need to make this recipe!
I made this to break up the monotonous same old weekly pasta cycle. I liked that it was a different and lighter protein option. It was very easy to make, and I loved that it was all done in one pot. We actually had 2 tbsps worth of leftover pesto in the fridge, so I added that in with the onions and garlic. It had great flavor and felt very comforting and satisfying. We are saving this one to the recipe binder.