It would be interesting to hear others' takes on ragu/bolognese sauce recipes. What meat? Milk? Chicken livers? Wine? Herbs?

Mine has half pork, half beef, one 400g tin of tomatoes for every pound of meat, about 50g diced pancetta per pound of meat, a large white onion per pound of meat and some bashed garlic cloves (never minced or crushed). I start off with a soffritto of fairly finely-chopped carrots, celery and that white onion in equal amounts. The pancetta goes in with that as well. After about twenty minutes the meat goes in, stirred and broken up until it's browned all through, then the garlic. Then the tomatoes go in, with a teaspoon of sugar, along with about 130ml chicken stock to each pound of meat and some seasoning. I'm a bit reluctant to add wine so I don't add much, and red or white, who cares. I don't add any herbs until the very end when I chuck in some torn basil leaves. The whole lot is simmered for about three hours uncovered. No milk or chicken livers for me.

There are heated family disputes here. If it were down to me I'd leave out the garlic, but I've had to compromise, adding it bashed but never crushed. I refuse to add any dried herbs. No compromise there. They insist on red wine, so I use it, but a splash only. My son objects to the pork (not on religious grounds), but he doesn't seem to notice that I've used it. My five-year-old grandson objects to the "green bits" (the basil), as Daddy uses the horrendous dried stuff which doesn't show up green. And they all want it served on spaghetti, which is anathema. It has to be pappardelle or fettuccine for me, but I lost that one long ago. I throw the pasta into the sauce and mix thoroughly, whereas my son heaps the sauce onto the middle of a pile of spaghetti. Useless. And there's only one way to eat it, and that's slurped with a fork only. I smirk in the general direction of anyone employing a spoon, or, worse, a knife. At least we're all agreed that freshly grated Parmesan is de rigeur. None of that inferior grana padano muck, and definely never ready-grated. A little drizzle of the best olive oil on top is nice, along with a little scattering of baby basil leaves, but such things are optional.