Use your leftover turkey to make this easy recipe with collard greens, caramelized onions, pesto, and linguine. Shredded Turkey & Collard Green Pesto Linguine is like putting a whole lot of happy on your plate. I hope you enjoy it soon!

What do you do with leftover turkey or even chicken for that matter? This Shredded Turkey & Collard Green Pesto Linguine is an easy answer. Meal preparation is a lot faster when you can use leftover turkey to make a super easy and delicious meal. And for this recipe, it gets even better because we’re using collard green to make a robust, delicious, and healthy pesto. Our family garden is still producing collard greens and I decided to use some of the bounty to make a simple and rustic pesto recipe.

Shredded Turkey & Collard Green Pesto Linguine Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound linguine (cooked al dente and tossed with extra virgin olive oil)
1 cup clean and rinsed collard greens
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup fresh whole basil leaves
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 15 ounce jar Alfredo sauce
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups shredded turkey
2 large yellow onions, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely minced
sea salt to taste
freshly cracked black peppercorns to taste
2 cups packaged or homemade breadcrumbs
fresh Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor add collard greens with the thick stems removed, parsley, whole basil leaves, garlic cloves, Parmesan cheese, and extra virgin olive oil. Pulse until smooth.
Prepare pasta according to pasta directions, pasta should be al dente.
In a large skillet add extra virgin olive oil and unsalted butter. When the olive oil and butter mixture is hot add the sliced onions, add sea salt and freshly cracked black peppercorns. Make not to crowd the skillet, the onion slices should be laying flat. After browning the onion slices on both sides you can stack them to make room for more onions. Add more olive oil and butter as needed. Once all of the onions have been browned on both sides, reduce the heat to low and continue to cook the onions. Stir as needed to prevent burning. Cook until the onions have caramelized and are soft and golden brown.
Add the chopped turkey to the pasta, onions, and pesto.
Pour in the Alfredo sauce and mix the ingredients well. Top with breadcrumbs and fresh mozzarella cheese and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve hot. Garnish with sprigs of fresh parsley and your favorite crusty bread.