Make Valentine’s Day dinner special with homemade red sauce

Transform basic pasta and red sauce into a thoughtful, hearty dish that your sweetie will love.

This classic Italian-American red sauce uses canned tomatoes (whole canned tomatoes provide better flavor than crushed ones) and is ready in under an hour.

For a spicier sauce, add red pepper flakes to taste. To transform it into a cream sauce, stir about 1-1/2 cups of heavy cream into the sauce at the end of the cooking process. Serve with high-quality pasta, either store-bought or homemade.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 small white onion, diced
4 cloves crushed garlic (add extra for more garlic flavor)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more to taste)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
1 can tomato paste (6 ounces)
2 (28-ounce) cans of whole peeled San Marzano-style tomatoes
1 large sprig of fresh basil or 1 tablespoon of dried
kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Open tomatoes, but do not drain. If you do not have an immersion blender or prefer not to use one, dump tomatoes and juices into a bowl and use your hands or a potato masher to crush tomatoes, then set aside. If you plan to use an immersion blender, skip this step.

Using a large pot, saute onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until they soften and become translucent. Add the garlic and continue cooking until the garlic begins to sizzle, then add red pepper flakes and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

When garlic turns light brown, add oregano and Italian seasoning and cook for another minute before adding tomato paste. Cook for an additional three minutes or until tomato paste softens and blends with oil.

Stir in canned tomatoes and their juices, then bring to a simmer. If tomatoes were not crushed before cooking, use an immersion blender to blend until the sauce is smooth.
Add dried or fresh basil and simmer for about 30 minutes to reduce the sauce slightly and allow flavors to blend and deepen. Drop unsalted butter into the sauce and stir until melted and incorporated.

Taste the sauce and add salt as needed before serving.