Recipe: Gina Pasquale's Basic Spaghetti Sauce

Gina Pasquale's Basic Spaghetti Sauce
rec.food.recipes/Gina Pasqulae/1994

Here's my personal favorite homemade spaghetti sauce (yes, I am Italian):

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small green pepper, chopped
6 ripe tomatoes, medium
1 (12 oz) can tomato puree
1 (6o z) can tomato paste
2 tsp oregano, dried
1 tsp basil, dried
1 tbsp parsley, dried
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Prepare the tomatoes: drop them into a pot of boiling water for about a minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. Slip off the skins, cut out the "core", and coarsely chop. Set aside.

In a large pot, heat the oil. Add onion and fennel seed. Fry a couple minutes. Add the pepper and garlic and fry a couple more minutes (don't let the precious garlic brown or burn, please!). Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, lower heat, then simmer for as long as you can (at least an hour), stirring occasionally. I cover the pot loosely when simmering.

Notes: You can use fresh herbs for the dried, and it's much better. Just triple the proportions for fresh. You can also add other veggies to the sauce during the simmer phase: carrots (shredded), green chilis (fresh roasted from New Mexico), chopped olives (black or green), sliced mushrooms. You can also add TVP to fool meat eaters: soak 1 cup TVP and 1/4 tsp fennel seed in 7/8 cup boiling water for 10 minutes. Fry the TVP in some olive oil before adding to the sauce.