A simple, delicious tomato sauce

True confession time: I add smashed cloves of garlic to mine. The quantity is relative to the number of tomatoes.

The Marcella Hazan tomato sauce with onion and butter is heavenly. But if you are wanting a real Italian-style gravy, then you may want to add meat. My Sunday Pork Ragu (http://www.food52.com/recipes/11544_sunday_pork_ragu) is my Italian great-grandmother's recipe. It gets its delicious flavor from adding sausage and pork neck bones to the sauce.

For special occasion fare, it's hard to beat thirschfeld's Meatballs Emilia Romagna with Pasta Sheets (http://www.food52.com/recipes/6267_meatballs_emiliaromagna_with_pasta_sheets).

But for something simpler but also pretty tasty, you can't go wrong with Merrill's Weeknight Ragu (http://www.food52.com/recipes/2554_weeknight_ragu).

@mrslarkin, really? I've never heard of a tomato sauce recipe like this. No garlic?

FWIW, I just watched Anthony Bourdain's Naples episode, and he wrapped up shooting with a Sunday night dinner at his fixer's mother's house. She made gravy that looked dead-easy - onions, beef, pork, tomato, olive oil. That was basically it. This recipe looks pretty similar (omit the meatballs if they're too much effort): http://almostitalian.com/sunday-gravy/

mrslarkin @ boulangere have my total agreement.

It simply doesn't get any better than this.

Get a bunch of fresh ripe tomatoes and make this: http://www.food52.com/recipes/13722_marcella_hazans_tomato_sauce_with_onion_and_butter

It's super easy and delicious! Good luck!