Ali's Bolognese Sauce

ingredients

1. 1/4 cup of olive oil (no other oil will do)
2. 1 large onion, chopped as fine as possible
3. 1-2 carrots, chopped as fine as possible
4. 2 celery stalks, chopped as fine as possible.
5. 1/2 lb of ground beef
6. 4 Italian Sausage links (hot or sweet or mix, whatever you like). The casing should be opened and all the raw meat taken out and broken apart. If good, Italian sausage is unavailable, you may use 1/2 lb of ground pork, but sausage is much better.
7. 3-4 28oz cans of either canned, whole tomatoes, strained tomatoes or chopped tomatoes. This depends on how you like the consistancy of your tomatoe sauce. In my house the ONLY thing we use is Pomi Strained Tomatoes. To me that makes all the difference in the world, but if you can’t find that, use something else. If you use the Pomi, use 3-4 of the 26 oz containers.
8. 1/2 cup of wine (optional)
9. 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
10. 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
11. salt
12. a few red pepper flakes (optional)

directions

1
In a large saucepot put olive oil with the onion and red pepper (if desired). Saute for a minute or so, then add the carrots. Saute for another minute, add the celery. Saute all the veggies until the onion seems to turn golden (about 10 minutes)
2
Add the beef & sausage a little bit at a time, so you can break it up in the pot. You want the meat to be like crumbled. Once all the meat has been added, saute a bit, then add the wine. I say the wine is optional, because the sauce does come out good without it, but the wine does make it a little better. Honestly, I only use the wine if I have it handy. If you use the wine, saute for a few minutes til the wine evaporates a bit.
3
Add your tomatoes. Stir well. Throw in all the other ingredients. Stir well.
4
This should stay on a low simmer at least 2 hours or up to 4 hours, with the pot cover half on, half off. You should stir the sauce only once an hour.

notes

This sauce reminds me of my father. I will never even come close to making it the way he did, but this is pretty damn good!! This is the sauce that makes the best baked ziti and lasagna. Time consuming but worth it.

Source: Ali