Sugo finto or “fake meat sauce”

The "sugo finto" or, more appropriately fake ragu or fake meat sauce, is a tomato sauce enriched with lot of vegetables or soffritto that have been sauteed in a pan with a glass of red wine. It is called this way because it looks like ragu (or sugo as meat sauce is also known in Tuscany) but it is, indeed, meatless. The recipe belongs to the poor peasant tradition when meat (beef, veal and chicken) was a rare and special ingredient. This pasta sauce is sometimes also known as sugo scappato, implying that something had ‘escaped’ from the pot (like the meat!).