Marinara Sauce

This is one of those recipes that I have been making for awhile and I make it so often that I don't really follow a recipe for it.  However, I think it's so good and I really want to share this recipe, so last time I made it, I decided to try and write down the ingredients for it.  Feel free to adjust this as you go along to suit your tastes. 

I love this sauce and love making a really big pot of it and freezing the leftovers to have on hand-it's so much better than jarred sauces.  Plus, if you look at how much sauce this recipe will make you, you will see that it's actually much more economical to make your own sauce than buy jarred sauces (don't get me wrong, every now and then we have a jar of pasta sauce in our fridge for a quick meal). There is something extra special about homemade sauce. I think sometimes homemade sauce seems like it's a difficult and daunting thing to make, but trust me, it's easy-just throw a bunch of ingredients into the pot and let it do it's thing!

I really also like adding meat to the sauce as it simmers-meatballs (I'll post my recipe for these later...they are out of this world!), sausages, a pork loin, etc.

Marinara Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup diced onion

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped garlic

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 (28-ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 (28-ounce) cans tomato puree

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

3/4 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1 Cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Dried basil leaves, to taste

Dried oregano, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until softened and translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomato sauce, tomato puree and tomato paste. Add the Italian seasoning and cheese. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Decrease the heat to medium-low and allow the sauce to simmer for at least 1 1/2 hours.  As it cooks, season the sauce to taste with additional cheese, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Source: Adapted from Emeril Lagasse