Spaghetti Sauce

Peel and dice the onion. 100 grams is an average-sized onion. Wash the celery and also dice it. Peel the carrot and grate it (this is faster, in my opinion). Heat a pan and add 3 tablespoons of vegetable (or olive) oil. Add our vegetables and sauté over medium heat for about three minutes, stirring occasionally. While this is happening, we will grind the meat into the minced meat.

I would never advise buying ready-made ground meat. It is better to take a good piece of meat and grind it yourself, so you will know exactly what you are eating and what you are feeding your family. Of course, I don't buy 200 grams of meat. I just take as much ground meat as I need, and the rest... For example, I'll make dumplings :) You can either transfer the sautéed vegetables to a plate, or simply push them to the side of the pan, as I always do. Turn up the heat to the maximum, add two more tablespoons of oil, add the minced meat, and sauté it, breaking up the meat clumps with a spatula or, if the pan allows (like mine), with two forks (one in each hand). Just about 3 minutes and it's done.

Mix the minced meat with the vegetables, add the tomato paste, and sauté for another minute. Pour in the wine, it will evaporate almost immediately (we did not reduce the heat), leaving only the aroma, which is exactly what we want. Don't buy the cheapest one, buy good wine, the kind you would drink yourself.

Next come the tomatoes in their own juice. If they are whole, mash them with a fork or blend them. Add to the skillet.

Now it's time to season our sauce. Add basil, ground nutmeg, salt, sugar, black pepper, mix well, then pour in the broth, adjust the taste, and simmer over low heat.

Now is the perfect time to put water on the stove and cook the spaghetti. While the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking, our sauce will be simmering peacefully. Stir it occasionally with a spoon. The sauce should not be dry, but should not be watery either, so do not cover it with a lid, let the liquid evaporate slowly. Under no circumstances should you add vegetable oil to the spaghetti water. Many people do this to prevent them from sticking together. But! If there is enough water and the spaghetti is of good quality, made from hard varieties of wheat, they will not stick together. And if you add oil to the water, the sauce will simply not cling to the pasta, and we need it to coat our spaghetti. According to all the rules, after draining the water, the pasta should be added to the sauce and heated together. But, it's one thing if you are making a small portion and everything fits perfectly, and another thing when the skillet is full of sauce and there is no more room for the pasta. In that case, arrange the spaghetti on a plate first and pour the meat sauce on top. How much spaghetti do you need? I would say 80-100 grams dried per serving. For me, a small eater, 80 grams is enough, but for my husband - no less than 100. Enjoy your meal!

I almost forgot! Cheese! The cheese is wonderful there. It's highly desirable to use hard, aromatic cheese. I really like our Jugas cheese, which, in my opinion, can be found in any store on our planet :) Grate it and sprinkle it over our spaghetti. Enjoy!