I won’t bore you guys with some long post about what this recipe means to us. Seriously, it’s PASTA. You can never go wrong with pasta. After eating myself into a coma last night, it’s now 8 in the morning, and I’m contemplating eating a bowl of this stuff because that’s how good it is. Is it ever too early for pasta, anyway? No, the answer is always no.

Read on for the recipe!

Note: I wanted enough for 4 people, plus leftovers, so I used 3lbs of meat.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon for tossing the pasta
• ½ cup chopped red onion
• ½ cup chopped yellow onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3/4 cup chopped carrot
• 1-2 pounds ground beef chuck
• ½  to 1 pound ground Italian sausage
•  Salt to taste
•  Black pepper to taste
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1–2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 4-6 whole garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1 ½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
• 2 6oz cans tomato paste (depending on how much meat you use, use 1 can)
• 2 6oz cans tomato sauce (depending on how much meat you use, use 1 can)
• 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds pasta

Cooking Directions

1. Put the oil, butter, garlic cloves, and chopped red onion in the pot and turn the heat on to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it has become translucent, then add the chopped celery and carrot. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring vegetables to coat them well.
2. Add ground beef and pork, a large pinch of salt and a few grindings of pepper. Add white onion. Crumble the meat with a fork, stir well and cook until the beef has lost its raw, red color.
3. Add milk and let it simmer gently, stirring frequently, until it has bubbled away completely. Start with about 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and stir.
4. Add the wine, let it simmer until it has evaporated, then add ALL tomato ingredients and stir thoroughly to coat all ingredients well. Add bay leaf, thyme, and rosemary once sauce begins to lightly bubble. When the sauce begins to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface.
5. Cook, uncovered, for 1-2 hours or more, stirring from time to time. While the sauce is cooking, you MAY find that it begins to dry out and the fat separates from the meat. To keep it from sticking, add 1/2 cup of water whenever necessary. At the end, however, no water at all must be left and the fat must separate from the sauce. Taste and correct for salt.
6. Toss with cooked drained pasta, adding the tablespoon of butter, and serve with freshly grated Parmesan on the side. I’m a penne girl but the traditional pasta for this is pappardelle or tagliatelle. Enjoy!