Quick Homemade Tomato Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil (canola is OK)
1/2 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced (or more, to your taste)
28 ounces chopped tomatoes, petite cut (canned)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons sugar (or less, to taste)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons mixed Italian herbs, dried (or fresh chopped basil, I use Penzey's pasta sprinkle)

Preparation

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped onions; you could also use shallots if you had them. Cook until soft, a few minutes. Add garlic and saute for about a minute.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to the point where the sauce still simmers. Add dried herbs. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. (While it's simmering, you can smash the sauce up a bit with a ricer or pastry blender, to break up some of the tomatoes--depends on how chunky you like your sauce.) If using fresh basil, add now.