Recipe(tried): Sauce Marinara - Here is a good Marinara Sauce recipe for Patsy.

SAUCE MARINARA

This is the famous Italian tomato sauce. It can be rich and meaty, good over spaghetti or linguini, or it can be light and vegetarian, for use by itself over pasta, polenta and other dishes, or as a garnish to veal parmigiano or such.

Marinara is good with big chunks of wild mushrooms cooked in it and served over pasta. Here is a recipe for a good marinara with about any kind of ground meat. Beef of course is a natural. For vegetarian marinara leave out the meat and go a bit lighter on the spices.

In a heavy fry pan brown:

1 lb ground meat
2 Tbsp olive oil

Add:
6 cloves garlic, chopped

Fry until garlic begins to frizz a bit, add:
Handful or so mushrooms, good but optional

Toss around a bit till mushrooms wilt some, add:
4 to 5 cans tomato sauce
1 can or 2 of dry wine, red or white
Tbsp or two of fresh basil, or couple tsp. dry
tsp. oregano
good grind black pepper
1/2 tsp. fennel seed, crushed
tsp. vinegar
scant tsp. sugar
dash Tabasco
other kinds of chile are optional

Let it all simmer down slowly, stir occasionally so it doesn't stick. This is a very versatile sauce with a wide range of uses. The above would be quite right for a good plate of Spaghetti for half a dozen people.

Make the sauce more concentrated, and more highly spiced if you are going to flavor a whole Lasagna with it, or make it much lighter, and without meat, to showcase freshly found wild mushrooms, or as an accent to Veal a'la Parmigiano. This is a fun sauce to play with and modify. Enjoy.