Sarah's Favorite Twisty Pasta

We had Sarah, age 3, over to visit not long ago during a stressful time for her, and she wanted this pasta at every meal. Definitely kid comfort food. No onion, pepper or other strong flavors added. Slightly more palatable to adults than the canned kid stuff. A nice way to incorporate some vegetables for veggie-resistant kids. Divide and freeze some of the sauce if you like.

Ingredients
about 1 pound ground turkey or extra-lean ground beef
about 2 medium or 3 small grey zucchini (Mexican or Lebanese type), finely shredded. Sarah will pick it out if she can see it. You could use dark green zucchini for less-picky kids. You could also try adding shredded carrot, skipping the sugar in the recipe.

1 jar spaghetti sauce (about 26 ounces)
1 tsp. sugar or to taste (optional)
salt to taste

Cooked rotini or other twisty pasta
Shredded or diced medium cheddar cheese (or cheddar and mozarella, etc.)

Directions
Thaw meat if frozen. Frozen 1-pound chubs of ground turkey are convenient for this recipe, and the fats are more healthful than those in ground beef.

Cooking Lesson Adapted from a recipe for Sloppy Joes by the obsessive people who produce books like this:

For some recipes, we want ground beef to "give" easily when chewed. This result can be accomplished by not browning the meat too much before liquids (or moist vegetables, etc.) are added. For this recipe, saute meat in a lightly oiled skillet just until it starts to lose its pink color, breaking it up with a spatula as it cooks. We don't want the meat to turn firm. We're feeding kids. (For adults, you can start with some chopped onion sauteed until it becomes translucent, or until it starts to caramelize.) Mix in zucchini (and/or carrots), stir and cook until vegetables are limp. Mix in spaghetti sauce.

Simmer for at least 10 minutes. Add sugar and salt to taste. You can cool and freeze part of the sauce at this point.

Boil twisty pasta until done. Drain and mix with hot sauce and a little cheese and serve.

Leftovers keep refrigerated for a couple of days, though some of the moisture may be absorbed into the pasta. Microwave individual servings topped with a little extra sauce and/or cheese if you like.

Sloppy Joes: Use the same principle of partially cooking meat before adding zucchini. You could probably work up a nice recipe using undiluted condensed chicken gumbo soup, tomato sauce or paste and ketchup. Aunt Elizabeth prepared Sloppy Joes once for a family party using condensed chicken gumbo soup when I was a teenager, and they were wonderful. I can't eat it now. Corn products. Let me know how it works.

Allergy Information: You can find commercial spaghetti sauce with no corn sweeteners if you look hard. Many Classico varieties contain no corn sweetener.