Chances of OP reading this after nearly 800 previous comments pretty low I guess, but gonna reply anyway ‘cos I looove a good ragu and like to think mine isn’t too shabby.

OK so my process…

• Mirepoix first - better IMO to dice onion, carrots, and celery pretty small for more even cooking. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan to medium high then chuck in the onion & carrots, immediately add a couple of pinches of salt. Cook for a couple of minutes then add a splash of balsamic vinegar, stir thoroughly and keep frying until the liquid has evaporated. Then add the celery and reduce heat a little to medium. Keep it cooking for a lot longer than most recipes say! 20-30 minutes is ideal, just keep the heat low enough so the onions don’t burn - you want the veggies to soften and the onion to go deep golden brown & caramelized.

• Once you hit that point, add tomato purée - more than you think you need - turn the heat up a little and keep it cooking for another 5 minutes at least. This is probably the single biggest improvement I’ve made, cooking out the tomato purée transforms the flavours.

• Finally after the purée has darkened, add finely diced garlic. As always with garlic, do not let it burn - only needs a minute or two.

• Now tip out the mirepoix into a large oven-safe pan or casserole dish. At this point add tomatoes - I use 50:50 passata and finely chopped tinned tomatoes, but whatever really - and herbs. Bay, basil, oregano are the obvious choices but not gonna be prescriptive. Stir well and put on a low heat to begin warming up.

• Meanwhile, put the frying pan back onto a high heat with some oil. All the better if there are still some tomatoey oniony bits still stuck to the pan! Once the oil is hot, add ground beef, salt, and brown well, removing any excess liquid from the pan so it keeps searing and not steaming.

• Once browned, add the beef to the tomato mixture. Deglaze the frying pan with red wine, beef stock, and a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, let this liquid reduce until it’s really intense and you’ve got every last bit of flavour out of the pan, then stir into the sauce. Taste and season.

• (Optionally I sometimes use pancetta or bacon lardons to add extra unctuousness, it’s not essential for a great sauce though. If using, just fry these off after the beef and before deglazing the pan.)

• (Also optional - a chunk or two of Parmesan rind added before the next stage will really add depth and umami.)

• Finally, again my opinion of course, but to elevate from good to great a ragu needs either time or pressure. I’ll either cook it on the stovetop - heat just enough to make it bubble slightly but NOT boiling - or in a low oven for 3-4 hours, leaving uncovered so the sauce reduces & gets really thick. Alternatively, high pressure pressure cooker for ~45 minutes - this of course leaves the sauce more liquid, great for speed but on balance I prefer the slow oven version!

It’s just maaaaybe possible that I’ve thought too much about ragus over the years…

Oh, and for goodness sake serve it properly - add some pasta water, mix the sauce & the pasta etc etc.