You can have this dish two ways: no pasta (for those looking to keep it low carb) or with pasta. I did both! And to make it more fun for the kiddos, you can mix different kinds of pasta noodles.
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb ground turkey (you can make it easier on you by buying Italian-seasoned turkey, but I like to make it from scratch with fresh herbs)
your preferred pasta noodles (estimate how much you need)
6-7 sweet bell peppers
2 TBS avocado oil
1 TBS olive oil (NOT extra virgin)
salt and pepper
fresh thyme and oregano
1/4 tsp cumin
1 bulb of garlic
extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven at 350F.
Take your fresh thyme and oregano (oregano might need to be chopped up), salt and pepper, cumin and mix it in with your ground turkey. Heat up your avocado oil in a large skillet and cook your turkey until there's no pink left. Make sure to break it up as it cooks so you don't get extra big chunks of it. Let that cook and turn your attention to the sweet peppers and bulb of garlic. Once cooked, set it aside.
Chop off the top of the garlic--no need to peel! Drizzle it generously with olive oil (NOT extra virgin--because EVOO does not do well at high heat) and season with salt and pepper. Wrap it in tin foil and that will be going into the oven with your sweet peppers.
Take your sweet peppers, wash, and trim off the tips. Toss it in olive oil or avocado oil (again, AVOID USING EXTRA VIRGIN for high heat--it's best used for salads or drizzling on the dish before serving) and season generously with salt and pepper. Put both garlic and sweet peppers in the oven and let it roast for about 30 minutes.
When you're halfway done roasting the peppers, get your pot of pasta water boiling. Cook your pasta al dente--which is usually 9-10 minutes (if you're using chick pea pasta, it's going to be a different cook time). As your wait for the pasta to boil, when your peppers are done and roasted, turn off the oven but leave the garlic bulb in there. Take out the peppers and be careful with handling. You'll want them cut into strips and mixed into the skillet that has the cooked turkey.
When pasta is done, get it out of the water and toss it with the turkey and sweet peppers. Take our the garlic bulb (handle with caution!) and using a tea spoon, scoop out the cloves. They should have a soft, creamy texture. Mix the cloves into the skillet. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and mix together well. Serve while nice and hot!!