A wonderful, versatile sauce. This does make a lot of sauce, so if you are planning to make it, either plan for a lot of sauce based recipes in the week after you make it, or can or freeze it.  Since it’s fairly easy to double or triple, why not make as big a batch as your pot can hold and freeze what you don’t use? A great staple to have on hand for busy days.
Thanks to Jyn for teaching me how to make the basic recipe. This has been tweaked and scaled down a bit from the original.

RED SAUCE

1 #10 (bulk size) can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons butter or bacon grease
1 large sweet onion
1/4-1/2 large head of garlic
1 4oz can of tomato paste
1 tablespoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Optional:
2-3 carrots, chopped
2-3 zucchini, chopped
1 large or 2 small eggplants, chopped
2-3 large beets, quartered (you will want to wear gloves when chopping!)
Mince onions as finely as you like them (if you don’t want to find evidence of them in the sauce do it very fine). Brown in a large pot with the butter or bacon grease (you will need to get the whole can of sauce in there), stirring frequently. While the onion browns, peel and finely mince about 1/4- 1/2 head of garlic (I use my mini food processor and get it very fine). 1/2 a head of garlic will give your sauce a bit of a bite, which if you like spicy foods is nice.
When the onions are nearly brown add garlic and cook until soft and the onions are browned.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil for just a minute or two. Bring down to a simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until the veggies are soft (but I usually do mine for 2-3 hours), stirring every 15 minutes or so. This gives me a nice, thick sauce and takes out a lot of moisture from it. We like our sauce thicker.
For pasta with meat sauce simply brown some hamburger (drain if not very lean meat) and add sauce.
I personally like adding a lot of veggies when I can. Sometimes I put in a few carrots, some eggplant and zucchini while it it simmering and then use my stick blender or blender to whiz it up. I like it chunky, but hubby isn’t keen on that, so saucy it is. I’ve also added kale, but it made the sauce somewhat green, so just be careful. It is a great way to sneak some more vegetables into your family’s diet, though it’s not super authentic red sauce then.
I love this sauce. It can be used in so many different ways. Spaghetti, Chicken Parmesan, Lasagna, Baked Ziti, Baked Stuffed Shells, Pizza and soups are a few of the ways I have used it.