Tomato Sauces

A good tomato sauce starts with onion and garlic cooked soft in olive oil, then the tomatoes go in and it simmers until it thickens. Taste it for acidity. A pinch of sugar or a knob of butter rounds it out. Long-simmered sauces like marinara get sweeter and deeper as they cook. Canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand, often beat fresh ones out of season. Simmer the sauce partly covered, or it spatters all over the stove.