Homemade marinara sauce

1. Preheat a nice big pot on the stove over medium heat. Throw in a couple of glugs of olive oil. Chop up one big onion and saute until translucent - roughly 5 minutes or so. Chop up additional veggies you want to include in the sauce. I normally go with 1 green pepper, 1 zucchini, and some button mushrooms. Saute these until just slightly tender, roughly 3 minutes.

2. Add in 5 cloves of minced garlic, 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp pepper, sprinkle of red pepper flakes, splash of good red wine for richness and 1 heaping TBS of tomato paste. Let the seasonings come together for a minute or so and then pour in 2 big 28 ounce cans of crushed tomatoes.

3. Let your sauce simmer on the stove for a few hours, covered, on very low heat.

4. Just prior to serving, stir in some freshly chopped basil.