Classic Ragu Sauce
Ingredients:
3/4 cup mirepoix (1/4 cup each minced carrot, celery and onion)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 lb ground pork or beef
1/2 lb sweet or spicy Italian sausage
2-3 minced garlic cloves
8 medium tomatoes (peeled and seeded, then coarsely chopped)
*or*
2 cans peeled tomatoes (seeded and coarsely chopped)
1 cup tomato sauce
1-2 tsp sugar
fresh basil (shredded)
grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano
Heat oil and cook mirepoix over medium-high heat, until onions are translucent (5 minutes or so). Add minced garlic, being careful not to scorch.
Remove sausage casing and break into bite-sized pieces. Break apart ground pork (or beef). Add both meats to mirepoix mixture; brown meat a bit, but don’t cook entirely.
Add red wine and stir. Reduce to the point where you can’t smell the acid/alcohol in the mix (probably 5 minutes or so).
Add chopped tomatoes and tomato sauce. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
Add sugar (1 tsp at a time) to taste. (Adding sugar to the sauce cuts the acidic taste from the tomatoes.)
Simmer over low heat, anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. (The longer you simmer, the richer and more flavorful the sauce.)
Right before serving, shred basil with fingers and blend into sauce (don’t use a knife, and don’t let basil sit in sauce for a long time or it will turn an ugly black color).
Serve sauce over pasta*, and garnish with grated parmigiano-reggiano.
* A big mistake people make is to rinse off their just-cooked pasta with hot or cold water while it’s draining in a colander. This is a no-no, because by running water over your cooked pasta, you’re rinsing away all of the starch on the pasta’s surface, and the sauce won’t “stick” well. (This is why you’ll wind up with watery red liquid in the bottom of your pasta bowl. Blech.)