Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter: A Take on Marcella's Classic

Directions

1. Heat a saucepan, dutch oven or braised over medium heat. When warm, add the olive oil and pancetta. Cook pancetta until golden brown.
2. While the pancetta browns, slice your onion and garlic clove in half and rinse and dry the fresh oregano, leaving the leaves on the sprig.
3. In a large bowl, crush the canned tomatoes by hand, leaving some texture, and remove any basil leaves.
4. When the pancetta is brown, add a pinch of crushed red pepper and stir for about one minute. Tip the pan and remove any excess fat with a spoon.
5. Add crushed tomatoes to the pan, then nestle in the onion, butter, garlic, parmesan rind, oregano sprigs, add a big pinch of salt, and stir. Simmer on low or medium low, uncovered - keeping a steady but low bubble - for about 45 minutes.
6. Remove the onion, garlic and oregano from the sauce.
7. Cook pasta (rigatoni works well here) about a minute shy of package directions, reserving about a cup of starchy cooking water.
8. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce along with about a quarter cup of pasta water - more if needed to make the sauce come together. Let the pasta finish cooking in the sauce, it will absorb the flavor of the sauce into the pasta.
9. Plate the pasta and garnish with basil and grated parmesan, if desired. A drizzle of good olive oil is good here too.