There must be billions of blogs and posts about making food and secret recipes and the like. I have no issue with that. I love food. Here’s an easy recipe for foundation tomato sauce that’s tremendously savory and versatile canvas.
I use canned crushed tomatoes – my brand of choice these days is Cento. If tomatoes are in season, then of course I use fresh tomatoes but still fortify the sauce with something canned. The canned tomatoes are guaranteed to be packing with tomatoeness and they have a tendency to form crusts on the side of the pan, which have a similar effect as fond from meats when folded back into the sauce. Still, they require a bit of rework to remove the tinniness and achieve something wooden spoon-lickingly savory.
I slice and dice some onions very thinly and saute them in a substantial amount of olive oil. I’m looking for them to eventually dissipate into the sauce. Add some garlic after a bit, throw in a pinch of cumin and pul biber, let that get fragrant then dump in the tomatoes. Stir in some umami bombs – a great and easy idea I read in a cookbook: a few shakes of soy sauce, a couple drips of fish sauce (or anchovies would be great) and a teaspoonish of marmite.