Homemade Meat Sauce

Our usual pasta sauce is minced beef cooked in a bottle of Prego's. Lazy, eh?

I have some minced beef left over from making beef burritos yesterday and decided to make meat sauce but this time, from scratch.

It's not an elaborate recipe.... I looked up online at various recipes, picked out the common ingredients and omitted what I do not like to eat, like celery. And below is my version :

300gms of minced beef (I used lean beef version)
1 yellow onion - chop half finely, the other, more coarse
4 tomatoes - pureed (I used a grater, skins excluded)
1 carrot (about 4 inches) - grated finely
1 red pepper - chopped
1 green pepper - chopped
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry red wine
dried basil
dried oregano
1 bay leaf
freshly cracked black pepper
salt (optional)

1. Heat up the olive oil in a saucepan and fry onions till translucent.
2. Maintain medium heat. Stir in carrot, peppers and tomato paste. Let it come to a boil and then stir in beef.
3. When beef is cooked through, pour in (this is the BEST part!!) red wine. Stir well.
4. Add in tomato puree and season with basil, oregano and the bay leaf.
5. Let simmer over low heat for about half hour, stirring occasionally. Sauce will thicken.
6. Season with black pepper and salt, if required.
7. Remember to discard bay leaf after cooking.
The pasta sauce is yummily, naturally sweet from the beef and veggies... Delicious! I had loads of fun tasting the sauce every now and then while it was simmering away, between sips of the red wine... Hic!