This recipe is for a classic, inexpensive, and quick marinara sauce and is written for a novice chef. I prefer to pair this with thin spaghetti, but any pasta will do. Total sauce cook time is around 20 minutes. I've linked the specific ingredients I use for easy reference.

I tend to use thin spaghetti with this sauce. But you can use whatever you like. The recipe only needs about 8 oz of dry pasta. You'll probably get a 16 oz package, so in that case use half the package. Before starting the sauce, fill a large pot 3/4 full with water, cover it, and heat it on high heat. Once it starts a rolling boil (a lot of large bubbles), add your pasta to the water. Be sure and stir the pasta in the water to make sure the strands do not stick together. I generally stir the pasta every 1 to 2 minutes to make sure it is getting evenly cooked. Cook the pasta according to the packaging's LOWER number. I use 8 minutes for thin spaghetti. When the time is up, taste the pasta. It should be slightly firm, but NOT crunchy. This is known as Al Dente pasta. Dain the water and place it in a covered dish. I usually add some butter and salt to the pasta and stir it in at this point. I use about 1/2 a TB of butter and 2 pinches of kosher salt (1/8 tsp) for 8 oz of pasta.

After you put the pasta water on the stove, heat the Olive Oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Open the can of diced tomatoes, leave the lid on the top and strain the juice into a bowl. This will separate the juice from the tomatoes. Once the oil is hot (but not smoking) put in the garlic. Fry the garlic in the oil for about 3-4 SECONDS then immediately add the diced tomatoes (without the juice) and stir it in the oil with the garlic. DO NOT let the garlic burn. The tomatoes will cool down the pan and prevent the garlic from burning. Season the tomatoes in the pan with ground pepper and salt. Season to your taste. I tend to use a little more than 1/8 tsp ground pepper and about 3 to 4 pinches of kosher salt (around 1/4 tsp).

Add the white wine. 1.5 cups is an estimate. I tend to add enough so the tomatoes are almost covered (maybe 3/4 to the top of the tomatoes). Lower the heat to medium-low, leave the pan uncovered, and let the wine simmer and reduce (the wine liquid will boil off). How much you let the wine reduce is up to you. You want to at least get rid of the alcohol taste, but you want to make sure to leave some liquid in the pan. I tend to let it reduce by about half (10 minutes or so). After a few minutes of simmering, TASTE THE SAUCE and add a pinch of salt if you think it tastes bland.

While the wine is continuing to reduce, open the tomato paste. I recommend Hunts because it is the cheapest I've found where you can still open both ends of the can. As my grandmother taught me, opening both ends makes getting the paste out a lot easier. Be sure to leave the lids in place on the ends of the can.

Once you've reduced the wine to where you want it, TASTE THE SAUCE and add a pinch of salt if you think it tastes bland. Now you need to mash the tomatoes in the sauce. I recommend using a potato masher. My technique is to press down firmly and twist a quarter turn. Use this technique to mash all the tomato pieces so their juice is released into the sauce.

It is time to add the tomato paste. Get the can and push one lid into the can just enough to get the other lid off. Then place the open end of the can over the pan and continue to push the other lid into the can. This will allow the paste to drop into the pan. You can then remove the other lid from the end of the paste. Season the tomato paste to your taste. I usually use the same amount of salt and pepper that I used for the diced tomatoes (1/8 tsp pepper and 1/4 tsp salt). Add the tomato juice from the diced tomatoes to the pan and mix the paste into the sauce. Depending on how much you let the wine reduce, you may need to add some water to get the sauce the thickness you want. When I do it, I do not need to add water. TASTE THE SAUCE one last time and add a pinch of salt if you think it tastes bland. The sauce is done!

Once the sauce is done, you can either add the pasta directly to the sauce or serve the sauce on top of the pasta. Totally up to you. Feel free to top with some grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

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