In Italy, ragu is not a brand of spaghetti sauce that I fondly remember from the 80's as the only brand that my bratty little neighbor would eat.  It goes way further back-- as a category of home-made sauce which involves red wine, long cooking time and several types of meat.  The recipe that inspired this was made from veal and sausage and, in the magazine clipping on which it was printed, preceded by poetic paragraphs referring to ragu as "the only true food for the soul"...or something.  But if you don't consider veal to be the food for your soul, allow me to present an alternative.  Though I'm certainly not the first to put together a "meat" sauce, this one goes a little deeper than the old veggie-meat-mixed-with-marinara, with fancy little touches like porcini mushrooms (which you'll find either in your local grocery or gourmet store, always in dried form) and fennel seeds (to bring something vaguely sausage-esque into the flavors).  Instead of multiple types of meat, I used multiple substitutes: tempeh, tofu and mushrooms.  

This batch is pretty large, so you can freeze the leftovers for later in the fall.   

Prep Time:  15 minutes
Cooking Time:  90 minutes
Yield: 8 Servings
Ingredients:
1 Cup Water
1 Oz Dried Porcini Mushrooms
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Carrot, finely chopped
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbsp Fresh Italian parsley, chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 Cup Finely Chopped Portabella Mushrooms
8 oz. Tempeh, broken up into pieces
8 oz. Firm or Extra Firm Tofu, broken up into pieces
3/4 Cup dry red wine
2-28 oz Cans Whole Tomatoes in Juice
2 Bay Leaves
2 Tsp Chopped Fresh Sage
1 Tsp Fennel Seeds, lightly crushed

Directions
Bring 1 cup water and mushrooms to boil in small saucepan. Remove from heat. Let stand 15 minutes. Strain soaking liquid into a bowl. Coarsely chop mushrooms. Set liquid and mushrooms aside.
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, 1/4 cup parsley, garlic and portabella mushrooms. Sauté until vegetables are tender but not brown, about 5 minutes. Push vegetables to side of skillet. Add tempeh and cook without stirring for about 5 minutes. Stir vegetables and tempeh together, then push everything to the side again.  Add tofu and cook without stirring for about 5 minutes. Stir everything together and add the wine. Increase heat to high and boil until wine is almost evaporated, about 3 minutes.  Add reserved mushroom liquid.  Simmer until liquid is almost absorbed, about 3 minutes. Transfer mixture to a food processor. Using quick pulses, process just until coarsely chopped. Return mixture to the pot. Mix in tomatoes with juice (squeezing tomatoes to break them up as you add them), bay leaves, sage, fennel seeds and porcini mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered until sauce thickens, breaking up tomatoes with your spoon and stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.  Season generously with sea salt and pepper.   Serve over cooked whole grain pasta with optional parmesan.