Meat Sauce (Italian Sugo di Carne)

This traditional Italian meat sauce consists of ground beef, pork, or a combination of both, that is sautéed alongside a sofrito of onions, carrots, and celery, red wine and canned tomatoes. The mixture is traditionally seasoned with salt and pepper and it can optionally be enhanced with tomato paste and porcini mushrooms. Sugo di carne is typically enjoyed over pasta dishes such as penne, rigatoni, tagliatelle, fetuccine, or pappardelle, which are often sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top. This traditional meat sauce is also frequently used in the preparation of lasagna.

When you mention Italian meat sauce, most people will immediately think of those monuments of Italian cooking, the ragù alla napoletana and the ragù alla bolognese. Those sauces that require hours of cooking and fairly elaborate preparation. These time-consuming ragù are, quite rightly, reserved for special occasions. Ragù alla napoletana is often called ‘Sunday sauce’ among Italian-American (and ‘il ragù della domenica‘ among Italians), an expression from back in the days when the main event of every Sunday was a grand, multi-course meal. I suspect that for most people, even in Italy, these dishes are prepared less often than that these days.

For everyday cooking, however, here is a far simpler meat sauce that may not exactly be fast food, but it certainly take far less time and effort. This generic sauce doesn’t have the complexity of one of those monumental sauces, but it’s plenty satisfying nonetheless, All you need is some chopped meat, some canned tomatoes and a few aromatic vegetables, and about 2 hours to spare, most of which can be spent away from the stove. I love to make this sauce with ground pork,which to my taste is more savoury, but you can use ground beef as well, either instead of or in combination with the pork - in fact, it is far more common to do so.

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb ground pork and/or beef (500 g)
½ cup red wine
sea salt
black pepper, freshly ground
1 (28 oz) can tomatoes, passed through a food mill or use crushed tomatoes (800 g)

Optional:
1 spoonful tomato paste
2-3 dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in water

In a large pot, preferably of terracotta or enameled cast iron, make a soffritto by gently sautéing the onion, carrot and celery in olive oil until the vegetables are very soft, taking care never to brown them. (It helps to add a pinch of salt, which draws out the vegetables’ own liquids, as well as a spoonful of water from time to time. This both speeds up the softening process and helps avoid browning.)

Add the ground pork (or beef) to the pot, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and mixing to combine it well with the soffritto. Season with salt and pepper, and let is simmer gently, stirring almost constantly, until the meat has lost its raw look. Then add a splash of red wine and continue simmering, until the wine has evaporated.

Add the tomatoes, stir again. Then let it simmer for at least an hour, stirring only occasionally, until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened and developed a deep flavor. (You can let it go longer if you like and it will only get better the longer it cooks.) If the sauce gets too thick before you think it’s done, then just add a bit of water or broth as needed.

Serve sugo di carne with pasta.

Cook's Notes:

• Use a good quality red wine for this recipe. The wine's flavour will only get stronger and more distinct as the sauce simmers, so it's important that the wine itself tastes good.
• You can crush the tomatoes or not, depending on the consistency you enjoy most. I like crushing half of the tomatoes and leaving the rest whole for a chunkier sauce.
• This is a great sauce for starting early and making extra. Start a big batch, let it cook over an hour or more and freeze in several-cup batches for easy dinners later on.
• Make sure to cover the pot. If it's not covered, the liquids can boil off too much, and the meat will burn.
• If you like, you can add a bit of tomato concentrate (aka tomato paste) along with the canned tomatoes. The paste adds a more intense tomato flavour as well as acting as a thickener.
• This is a versatile sauce that works with many different kinds of pasta. Short pastas like rigatoni or penne go particular well. The sauce also pairs well with fresh pastas like tagliatelle, fettuccine or even pappardelle. On the other hand, factory-made long pastas like spaghetti don’t really work that well with meat sauce, despite the popularity of ‘spaghetti bolognese’ (a fake Italian dish if there ever was one). It is also a fine substitute for ragù alla bolognese in making lasagne. But perhaps my favourite way of using meat sauce, is to make a pasta al forno.
• Although it sounds funny, you can leave out the meat from your meat sauce, in which case you’ll have a sugo finto or “Fake Sauce”. It’s actually quite delicious.
• What Is Sugo di Carne?  Sugo di carne is a traditional Italian sauce - the "sugo" - with added beef- the "carne". This sauce is classically made with fresh or peeled tomatoes instead of puréed, cooked with red wine and spices for long periods to enhance the flavours.
• What's the Difference Between Sugo and Ragu?  Sugo can refer to several different things: the liquids from cooking meat (like meat drippings), any sauce added to pasta, or specifically a simmering sauce made from tomatoes (as in this recipe). Ragu, however, is specifically a mince-based sauce. This variety of sugo di carne using ground beef in tomato sauce is technically also a ragu.
• How Do You Enhance the Flavour?  The secret to a delicious meat sauce is red wine and a long cook time. By adding red wine, the flavours of the tomatoes and herbs will be enhanced by the natural flavour and sweetness of wine. It also pairs beautifully with beef and helps the entire sauce merge together, aided further by letting it simmer for an hour or more.