Make the Pasta Sauce

I understand that every now and then dinner needs to be quick and easy. I mean, really quick and easy. And on those nights, I have no problem opening up a jar of premade pasta sauce to pour over noodles. But if I have an extra 20 minutes to simmer my own pasta sauce, that's exactly what I try to do.
When cooking with any sort of canned tomato, I only ever buy Red Gold tomatoes. I saw an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they taste tested canned tomatoes and this ranked #1 with their testers. The diced tomatoes are stored in tomato juice, not water, so there is a strong tomato flavor with these tomatoes. The runner up canned tomato was Muir Glen (organic canned tomatoes).

Easy Pasta Sauce Recipe

• 1/4 cup onion , grated
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil , chopped

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup grated onion. Saute 2 minutes. Add oregano and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook with stirring 3 minutes until onions begin to brown. Add crushed garlic. Cook 30 seconds. Add crushed tomatoes and sugar. Turn heat to high and cook with stirring until simmering. Turn heat to medium low. Simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in olive oil and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

Makes 3 cups, enough for 1 pound of pasta