Sebby's

Chop the mirepoix (celery, onion, carrot) into smaller pieces, it doesn't have to be fancy, it's just so it'll blend easier in the food processor.

Cut the mushrooms in quarters. Same here, it doesn't need to be fancy, it's just to make it easier for the stand mixer.

Mince the garlic, set aside for later use.

Mix the canned tomatoes until smooth, pour it into a container for later use.

Add the mirepoix and mushrooms into a food processor and mix until it’s very finely chopped. We don’t any large pieces of either meat or vegetables in this sauce. Transfer into a bowl.

If you don't have a food processor, finely, finely chop the mirepoix and mushrooms. It should turn into almost a paste.

Heat oil in a pan or Dutch oven on medium/high heat. With your hand, break the minced beef into smaller balls put them into the pan. Keep turning the balls of meat around, after 4-6 minutes the whole surface should be deeply browned (but still raw in the middle). Transfer the beef to another bowl.

Wipe out any burnt meat from the pan and set it to medium heat. Add some olive oil and add the mirepoix, garlic and mushrooms. Stir until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

Scrape the contents of the pan to the sides of the pan and add the tomato paste on the opposite side. Stir the tomato paste and let it cook for 2-3 minutes to develop more flavor.

Stir and combine everything in the pan until mixed.

Add the minced beef and stir, try to mash the meat into smaller pieces. The smaller pieces of meat the better.

Add the red wine and let it cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add the rest of the liquids (beef stock, water, canned tomatoes) as well as the bay leaf.

Let the sauce cook for 90 minutes without a lid. The goal is to get a very very thick sauce. You'll want to be able to scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula and the sauce should not try to fill the space. If it starts to thicken too much before 90 minutes has passed, add a splash of water.

If the sauce is too watery it'll make the pirogi very gooey and just bad.

During the cooking, continuously taste the sauce and season accordingly.

Once you're happy with the sauce you can either start making the dough or keep it in the fridge for a few hours, or even better, over night.

I prefer making the sauce the day before, this means there's a lot less steps to do when making the actual pirog and the sauce has more time to develop flavor.