You get a lot of people who are really proud of their meat sauce. Then you get a lot of people who look at a package of ground meat and think, “I’ll put that in a pan with an onion add a jar of tomato sauce and everybody’s happy.” To those people I say: I want to improve on your happiness. I want to take your happy and I want to make it taste better. But then I have to say, “are you ready?” Because there is sauce, and then there is sauce.
Just like there is kissing and then there is kissing.
It’s up to you and the sauce.
Try this and see what happens, season with salt and sear off in olive oil, one chicken leg. Remove it from the pan. Add 2 sausages and sear those (mild and no fennel). Remove from the pan. Add a pound and a half of beef chuck that has been ground twice by you or the butcher, season with salt, add a bay leaf, and brown that over a low to medium heat, until it is nicely browned and completely cooked through. Drain the meat. Pour the fat from pan, but leave any brown bits, stuck to the bottom. Add a spill of good olive oil. Add one clove of garlic and let it get golden. Add a few tablespoons of minced cured, but not smoked, pancetta. Let it go for a minute then add 1 onion, finely chopped, 1 inside stalk of celery, 1 carrot, a good pinch of salt, and over low to medium heat, saute for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Add the meat, season with salt, and give it a good, gentle stir. Add 1/4 cup of good dry white wine. Let it simmer until the wine has disappeared. Add about the same of homemade, unsalted chicken stock. Let it simmer until the stock disappears. Push the meat to the side. Add 2 tablespoons of Italian tomato paste and let it sizzle on the bottom for a minute. Combine with the meat. Add another good spoonful of stock. Let it simmer until the stock disappears. Add about a cup more of stock and turn down the heat, to let the sauce simmer for about a half an hour. Meanwhile, reduce 1/4 cup of cream with a sliver of garlic and a pinch of salt until reduced by half. Add this when the half hour is up. The sauce should be moist. Add a tiny bit more stock if it needs it. Taste. Get your best parmigiano reggiano ready. And if you want to take it just one dance step further, reach for the pasta maker and roll out some noodles.