Not only is the world giving you and your mate the short end of the stick, it also seems to be whopping you with it. To make yourself feel better, you cook lasagna, all day. You start with the meat sauce. As two tablespoons of chopped onions sizzle in three tablespoons each of olive oil and butter, they send out an aroma of anticipation, a whiff of good times to come. The smells get sweeter as you add chopped celery and carrots, two tablespoons each.
Carrots are remarkable.
When they are raw, they are boring and taste like health food. But when they are cooked, especially with olive oil and wine, they are transformed into co-conspirators of saucy pleasure. You remember seven years ago when Bernard Loiseau, a three-star French chef, cooked at the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia and used only pureed carrots and Cote du Rhone red wine to make sauce for rockfish that was absolutely celestial. You promise yourself that someday you are going to try making that French rockfish sauce, but not today. Today you are making Italian meat sauce.