Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 lbs Italian sausage (if not using bulk, remove casing)
1 medium garlic clove, pressed (the more the better)
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (pureed in blender or food processor)
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 whole onion
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded but not chopped
1 cup grated parmesan cheese or 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
4 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
salt
pepper
cooked spaghetti
additional grated parmesan cheese (to garnish)

Preparation

Heat oil in Dutch oven over moderate heat. Crumble in Italian sausage, add garlic and cook until meat loses red color. Remove meat from pan and drain off all but about 1 tablespoon of grease.
Whisk in tomato paste and cook over moderate heat about five minutes, stirring frequently (tomatoes burn quickly). Whisk in pureed tomatoes and tomato sauce, then add whole onion, green pepper, cheese (a little at a time to avoid clumping), sugar, oregano, basil and fennel seed. Add sausage. Bring just to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 1 1/2 hours. (Sauce will splatter if heat is too high.).
Add parsley and mushrooms during last 5 minutes of cooking time. Remove onion and green pepper. Add salt and pepper. Serve over spaghetti, garnished with additional Parmesan cheese.