Sometimes I get ground buffalo, from govt. I like it in some things, but not spaghetti. Well… I mean American bison… I think carabao might be okay in spaghetti.
I was wondering whether spaghetti sauce just meant Bolognese-style sauce to most people here. But James did mention beef at the outset so I suppose that narrows it down considerably, although I wouldn’t even attempt to cook a Bolognese-style sauce unless there were red meat in the mix … or no meat.
My first thought was that you simply wouldn’t expect a sauce that goes with red meat to go with white meat. Perhaps a spaghetti sauce based on a chicken recipe would be more likely to work—adapt Cattiatore for example. But it is more complicated than that. Real Bolognese contains pork as well as beef. It doesn’t contain herbs or garlic. It doesn’t contain carrot or celery. Yet all these and more are used in Bolognese-style sauces. So the clash could be with any one of several ingredients.
Possibly the way to go with turkey is to adapt a Carbonara-style sauce. But then again, the object was to produce something healthy wasn’t it?
Mmm… bacon…
I am a well read vegetarian on things dietary. I hope you don’t mind me joining in this topic.
Have you considered free range chicken mince as a replacement? The important thing about any poultry is that the skin must be removed before mincing. The skin is where most poultry fat resides.
Now the topic of beef eating runs against my religious upbringing and my personal, spiritual and aesthetic sensibility, but from a strictly scientific, nutritional perspective why do you consider lean beef to be bad for the heart?
Actually, ground turkey has more cholesterol than extra lean ground beef. After my heart attack and bypass surgery I had to start reading labels - I was quite surprised to see how little “common wisdom” regarding what is healthy refelects reality.
We use ground chicken too sometimes. But chicken fat is also bad for you. We started replacing beef with poultry in those type dishes as much for the avoidance of mad cow in beef as for health.
One thing to try, is to mix in some beef bouillion with the ground turkey/chicken so ti takes the poultry edge off the taste. However, you’re stuck with the bouillion flavor, if that’s objectonable to you.
Makes for fowl play with spaghetti, no? 
Ooo, I forgot about that, I have used skinless chicken breast sliced up. It is probably about as healthy a meat as there is. It can often be found at a good price.
- Bill
I made the best vegetarian lasagna last week (well, if I do say so myself that is 
). Lots of zucchini and tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic…all sauteed before hand. It was really yummy. I have to admit that it was way better than the meat filled kind
Now that’s a spaghetti western if anything is.
For the curious, it was a tomato-based sauce, with mushrooms and sauteed onions and garlic, and the meat, over spaghetti, topped with parmesan cheese.
We’ve used this same approach using both beef and chunked chicken in the past, was delicious both ways.
Since our attempt at using ground turkey, we have both become convinced that ground turkey is the essense of evil. Our first clue should have been the “Genuine Food Product” label on the package. 
–James
Thanks for warning about aftertaste of ground turkey. Having never tried it, I had no idea.
We use Morningstar Farms breakfast patties (fake sausage, by any other name) in our spaghetti sauce. It’s great! Something to try, next time you’re into trying a healthier alternative. Veggie Patch “Meat” balls are good too.
Redwolf
Dude. You gotta try pesto.
Dale
Some years ago when I was horribly poor my brother gave me an entire cooler full of deer meat - steaks, burger, etc. He told me not to make plain hamburgers or anything plain with the burger, but to only use it in with a sauce or heavily seasoned. I was thrilled, needing the food so badly, and the first night we were back home I made spaghetti with the ground venison. Oh my gosh. My daughter took one bite and spit it out, refusing to eat another bite. I took a bite and agreed with her. I suppose I should have found someone who could use the meat, but I didn’t know anyone at the time who would eat venison, so I threw it all out. Yuck.
Susan
Susan -
Deer meat “taste” is entirely based on what they were feeding on during their lives.
Where my ex hunts, he often gets deer that are basically “corn fed” (aka - they raid the corn fields) and other than the little to no fat content, the taste is hard to distinguish from beef.
However, he did get a deer one year that was evidently living on young pine trees (the farm also raised Christmas trees for sale). The meat tasted like it had been marinated in Uzo or something!
We mixed the ground deer with ground pork to have it be able to “hold” together.
Missy
Actually, it’s based on a number of factors, including what it ate, but also on what it was doing when it was killed and how it was cured. I’ve had excellent bambi kebabs, but have also had deer that was so gross I couldn’t even make a VERY highly spiced chili remotely palatable from it. Turns out that deer had been run by dogs, which evidently leads to lactic acid in the meat. I tried brining some of it to leech the bad stuff out of it, but no go.
Yep that’s very good. I still like to add clams now and then.
For the red sauce I always put in meat. My wife doesn’t understand the need for it.
i harvest on average about 3 deer a year. the method i use to remove the “wild-game” taste is to store the meat in a cooler of water for about three days. i change the water every morning and add ice. after 3-4 days i take it out and process it myself.
we use the buger for everyting from chili, spaghetti to cheese-burgers. no complaints from the wife or kids so far.
I usually start with olive oil, garlic, onions, green pepper, celery, tomato sauce, sofrito, basil and oregano. After it has simmered a while I add some button mushrooms and a handful or so of TVP. I also make my own pasta. We love it.
My cholesterol use to be 290 with HDL of 32. It is now 134 with HDL of 45.
Eat healthy
Ron