"tomato" Sauce

A family staple. I am not sure how the ladies before me (mom, grandma, et cetera...) would feel about me making this recipe public, but the WORLD needs to enjoy this. This marina sauce runs through my blood. This marina sauce is the REASON I needed to learn how to cook for myself... I could NOT live without it simply because my ladies passed away! The "Tomatoe" spelling is from my mother's hand-written recipe card where she wrote down the recipe as my Grandma Tina taught it to her. I will post the recipe exactly as I found it and add the little changes I made to it in parentheses. Please feel free to double or triple this recipe, freeze it for later, to send to family or anyone else who needs a little food affection (this sauce = love) - excellent on pastas, ravioli, on pizzas for italian bread dipping... whatever else you would like to do with a delicious marina sauce!

• Ready In: 2 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes
• 1  teaspoon oregano
• 1  dried leaf basil (if I used any tomatoes canned with basil in the can I skip this ingredient)
• 1⁄2 onion, diced
• 1  tablespoon salt
• 1  teaspoon pepper
• 1  teaspoon sugar (or less... I sometimes leave this one out)
• 2  garlic cloves, diced
• 1 -2  teaspoon olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan for sauteing)

Directions

1. Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil.
2. Add tomato paste plus one can of water and simmer for a few minutes.
3. Add strained can of whole tomatoes plus 1/2 can of the water from that can (I found this step annoying and silly and I always ended up adding more liquid in the process anyway! So I just throw the whole can in at this point - liquid and all plus a half of a can of water.).
4. Add all of the remaining ingredients and cook for 2 HOURS (stir and enjoy the aroma intermittently throughout the process).