Pasta Pomodoro

There's nothing easier than opening a jar of pasta sauce, boiling spaghetti, and throwing together a quick dinner. But once you see how easy and quick it is to make your own, you may never go back to store-bought. The flavors are brighter and fresher, it has more texture, and you can control the sodium to your taste. It's nice on pasta, of course, and also delicious over a piece of non-endangered grilled fish (check out the

Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Pocket Guide

for some sustainable fish suggestions) such as swordfish, tuna, or striped bass. Classic Mediterranean flavor!

To serve 3-4 with pasta for dinner, you will need:

• 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped (You can also use shallots or red onion if you like)
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed, grated, or minced
• 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes, no salt added  (I used Whole Foods' organic store brand. Italian San Marzano tomatoes are great too.)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Dried oregano
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Chopped parsley
• Freshly grated hard cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano, Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano, etc.)
• Pasta water, if needed (Save some of the salted water used to boil the pasta in case your sauce needs to be loosened up a bit before serving.)
• 1 pound dried spaghetti, spaghettini, linguine, or gluten-free rice pasta

Note: Why does this 'homemade" recipe call for canned tomatoes? Unless wonderful, sweet, summer tomatoes are local and in season, you're better off with canned than the tough and mealy "fresh" tomatoes from the grocery store. Canned tomatoes are picked at the peak of ripeness and preserved immediately, so they have much more flavor than "fresh" tomatoes that are picked when green, stored, and ripened artificially with ethylene gas. Canned San Marzanos, in particular, are sweet and intensely tomato-ey in flavor, and contain fewer seeds. )

Directions: 

For the pasta, put a big pot of salted water on to boil before you begin the sauce.

In a large saute pan, cook the garlic, onions, dried oregano, red pepper flakes (cooking the red pepper flakes makes them spicier, so use them judiciously), a pinch of salt, and black pepper

in a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat until the onions become transparent but do not brown, about 5 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes, including the liquid, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring regularly, until the tomatoes start to soften and the watery juice from the tomatoes thickens. Taste, add more salt and pepper as needed, and remove from heat.

Cook the pasta. When it's almost cooked through, but not quite done (break a strand in half - you want to see a tiny, lighter-colored dot of raw pasta in the center of the strand), use tongs or a pasta fork to scoop the pasta out of the water and into the sauce. Stir. Add a little of the hot, salted pasta water to help loosen the sauce (the pasta will continue to absorb liquid as it finishes cooking), return the saute pan to the stove, and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until the pasta is al dente (still firm but cooked through) and has absorbed the flavor of the sauce. Stir in chopped parsley. Top with grated cheese and serve.