I had an interesting experience here in Peru once, a bit of food understanding lost in translation.  The menu said "marinara" was part of a pasta dish description.  Naturally, I pictured a savory tomato sauce.  However, in Spanish, marinara means "marine" and denote a mixture of seafood, some identifiable, some not, half of which was rubbery.  Yum.

We're not dealing with that today.  Today we are talking about the classic red sauce that can be used for almost anything.  We like it for spaghetti, lasagna (coming soon), pizza, calzones (especially for extra dipping), and even a pasta casserole my teen girls taught me that includes peas, carrots, and peanut butter (It's good, I promise!).  When I have a fresh batch (or several) whipped up, I get excited about the delicious results in my future.  I pulled the recipe together from a variety of sources, leaving out pretty much anything I can't find here.  The result is a richly flavored sauce that steps up any dish.  Just try it and see if that canned stuff holds a candle anymore.  

Note: You can blend this to whatever consistency you prefer.  My family likes it smoother, so I leave it to run in the blender or food processor for a few minutes.  You can also blend after cooking if you realize it ended up chunkier than expected.  No stress.

This batch yields about 1 quart of sauce, which is enough for several pizzas, two full rounds of calzones with dipping, an 8x8 lasagna, or about 5 servings of spaghetti.  It keeps very well in the fridge, freezes well, and could probably be easily canned in a country that sells canning materials! : )  I recommend making several batches at once to save on prep work later. I made a x5 batch today, because I always make lasagnas two at a time and that alone requires 4 quarts, so that leaves me with 1 quart for a couple of calzones or some pizzas in the near future.  Mmmmm.

Ingredients:
1 kilo tomatoes (2.2 pounds), peeled and quartered
1 large onion (color doesn't matter), peeled and roughly chopped
10 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup tomato sauce (Italian flavor, if possible)
2 T sugar
2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 t ground fennel seed (whole works, too)
1 T Italian seasoning
1/4 cup red wine (not cooking wine!...too salty)
2 T olive oil
3 T flour

Directions:

1. Working in batches using a food processor or blender, puree tomatoes, onion and garlic (and fennel seeds, if whole) together until desired consistency is reached.  Pour into a large, heavy pot.  Repeat until complete.  I usually prepare the onion and garlic first, then plug along, peeling and quartering the tomatoes as the blender works.  It times out to have enough ready to refill the blender once it's done.  (The juice of the tomatoes helps the onion and garlic blend better.  Get a little of everything in every round.)  At this point, it will be very pink.
   
2. Add remaining ingredients, except flour, and stir well.  
3. Whisk in flour and blend thoroughly.  (Flour must be smooth before the mixture is hot, or it will cook into little flour lumps like dumplings.  If you forget and the sauce is already hot or bubbly, whisk the flour into a 1/4 of water before adding to the sauce.  It is important because it thickens the juices of the tomato and leaves the end product much smoother.)
4. Cover the pot and bring the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it turns a lovely red color.  If in doubt, leave it simmering.  It won't hurt anything.  How long this takes will depend on your oven and how much you are making.  This full pot probably took about 30-40 minutes.  
5. Remove the lid and continue simmering (it should be steaming) for another 10 minutes or so.  Doing this too early will cause you to lose some of your quantity to evaporation, but you need to allow for the alcohol to cook off and evaporate.  If you have not added the wine, you can skip this step.
6. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired. (Salt, pepper, italian seasoning, sugar - choose your preference.)  A little seasoning-to-taste tip is this: If you're unsure about adding a dash more of this or that, scoop out a bit into a bowl, add the considered seasoning, and taste again.  If you don't like it, the original is unaffected.  If you do, repeat with the entire thing.  
7. Use immediately or allow to cool slightly before storage, especially if freezing.