Homade Basic Tomato Sauce

This sauce can be the base for loads of things Lasagna, Spaghetti, Chicken Parm, Eggplant Parm, Pizza, and so much more. This is my personal recipe, so no siting necessary.
Enjoy!

Basic Tomato Sauce

3 TBS olive oil
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 large onion diced
2 15 oz cans of whole tomatoes (Marzano are the best, but expensive)
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
dash red pepper flake (optional)
5-6 fresh basil leaves (may sub 1 tsp dry, but fresh is better)

Go ahead and prep all your veggies and have them ready for the pot, sliced garlic, chopped onion, open cans of tomatoes (don't drain)

Add olive oil to a large pot, I use a dutch oven

Heat your pan to med-low heat

Add the garlic to the oil (Don't step away! Burned garlic is awful!) Let the garlic "steep" in the oil for 1-2 minutes, them remove all garlic onto a saucer or small bowl

Add the onion to the oil, cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant and translucent (turn down heat if needed)

Add the whole tomatoes and all the seasoning (except the basil)

Bring mixture to a boil, boil 1-2 minutes

then lower heat to a simmer

The next steps are where you make some decisions:

• Cook the sauce for however long you would like, I've cooked mine up to 3 hours, you could even put it in the crock pot (with this method the whole tomatoes will cook down). Add basil at the end
  

or

• Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes and mash up the tomatoes with a potato masher, add basil and serve

or

• Simmer sauce for a while, and let it cool. Then pour it in the blender and puree for a smooth sauce. (Kids will probably like this)

Final Note:

In the Summer when all the veggies are in season I add pretty much everything to this sauce zucchini, carrot, eggplant, squash... If you choose to add other veg, saute them in the pan when you add the onion, you might also have to use a little more oil.

I hope you enjoy! The recipe is really easy, hopefully I didn't make it seem to complicated!
Happy cooking!