Okay, here you go:
I chop up eight or ten garlic cloves in a mini processor. Put the garlic in a 12" skillet with high sides and a lid. Sauté the garlic in a very little olive oil till it turns golden, and add a 35 ounce can of Cento Italian peeled tomatoes. If there are any bits of skin still attached to the tomatoes, pull them off. Break the tomatoes up with tongs or a spoon, and add salt.
Turn down the heat to low, and cover. When the tomatoes are close to the consistency you want, add a little sugar or Splenda, and then five or six tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut in chunks. Stir in the butter; that will emulsify the sauce. When it's exactly the consistency you want, check for salt and cook and dress your pasta.
You can add dried herbs at any time, and/or fresh herbs at the end. It makes a fair amount, so you can set aside what you won't be using immediately and store either in the fridge or the freezer. Naturally when you're using the leftovers, you can first sauté some mushrooms, or sausage or add heavy cream or whatever to change up the sauce.
Usually when I first make a batch of my tomato sauce, after I've removed the amount I won't be using the first night, I add heavy cream and let it simmer while the pasta water is cooking. For one portion, I use about three or four tablespoons; hard to say, because I don't measure. Just use the amount you think looks right. You may want to taste for salt once again, since there's none in the cream. Then I boil up some fettuccine. I use the dry kind, De Cecco's very thin fettuccine in little nests. They only need to be cooked for about four minutes. I remove them from the pasta water with a spider, and dump them into the simmering sauce. Leave the water boiling. (I find a spider is best to fish out fettuccine or penne, farfalle, or any other kind of short format pasta. If you've decided on spaghetti or another long-format pasta, use long tongs.)
Stir the noodles into the sauce and add freshly grated Reggiano. And some fresh basil at the very end. If the fettuccine need to be cooked a little more, or if the sauce is too dry, add a tablespoon or so of the boiling pasta water.
Basically, once you've made the basic sauce, you can use it the way you'd use a bottled marinara sauce. But it's better than a bottled marinara sauce.
I recommend Cento peeled plum tomatoes. Most supermarkets carry them. Canned tomatoes are not all alike; some are just terrible. Most aren't very good. If you can't find the Cento 35 ounce cans, use one or two 28 ounce cans, using a little less or a little more butter and adjusting for salt. If you want to splurge, or if they're on sale, get the Cento San Marzano whole peeled plums in the 28 ounce cans. They can be quite pricey, but my supermarket occasionally has them for between $3 and $3.50, which is worth it. Better quality, and they cook faster.
AI
