All-Purpose Tomato Sauce, Fast + Loose

Because I have discriminating taste, I'm frequently disappointed with tomato/pasta sauces from jars. Don't get me wrong, I don't snub jarred sauce! I've just moved over gradually to making my own. I started with a recipe (which I can no longer find) and eventually developed my own base recipe for a tasty sauce from scratch, "fast and loose".

In my opinion, these are the must basics:
- tomato puree (28oz size, no salt added)
- small sweet onion
- four cloves of garlic
- dried oregano, basil, and rosemary or tarragon
- salt + pepper

Use a large sauce pan with a couple heavy glugs of olive oil. I chop my onion into a dice and sweat it until it's translucent. Mix in your salt and pepper. I only add a few pinches of salt until I taste it after cooking. The tomato puree you're using makes a big difference in flavor. Add the garlic and your chosen spices (around a tablespoon of oregano, everything else in lesser amounts) and saute another few minutes. Add the puree and cook at medium heat for at least half an hour. That's it! In the amounts listed, it's enough for about four big servings of pasta or one lasagna. It's awesome as a pizza sauce as well. Plus, the sauce will last a few days in the fridge. That's the cheap, easy version but you can pump it up in numerous ways:

- fresh herbs always taste better
- chopped tomatoes added for a chunkier sauce
- white balsamic vinegar if your sauce lacks tang
- red wine (I'm not a fan of wine-y sauces)
- fancy imported tomatoes
- add cream, cream cheese, or pesto

It's just nice to have something homemade on hand for quick dinners. Especially when it's so easy to make sauces of this kind. I need to experiment with tomato brands but using these guidlines I always end up with something yummy. I made a batch today just for freezing! Stupidly, I didn't freeze it into an ice cube tray! Now that I have a food processor, I need to make fresh pesto as well. That'll certainly go as cube form into a bag for quick use.