Keep in mind that this recipe is almost impossible to do incorrectly. Once you have mixed most of your ingredients together, keep tasting throughout the cooking process or you are in danger of over-seasoning! Remember that the longer your sauce simmers on the stove, the more intense the flavors will become.

Start with heating your saucepan on medium-high heat. Add ¼ cup of olive oil. Next, take your sausages and cut open one end of each link. Squeeze the meat out of the link and pinch it off with your hand in small lumps about the width of a quarter to make meatballs. Drop each ball into the pot and let it sizzle in the olive oil to brown.

After you have browned your sausage meat and the smell has permeated your entire kitchen, remove the meat into a bowl and put aside. Discard the grease and fat in the saucepan left from the meat. Put the saucepan back on the stove and pour in 2 Tablespoons more of olive oil. When the olive oil starts to sizzle (you can test this by dropping in one piece of onion), pour in your chopped onions and chopped garlic. Stir for just a minute, until the onion starts to barely turn translucent. Do not let the onion or garlic burn or change color. It is not necessary to wilt or caramelize the onions because it will be cooking for quite a while later on. Toss your sausage meatballs back in.

After you have stirred the onions, garlic, and sausage into the saucepan, pour in your large can of crushed tomatoes. Turn your heat down to medium and let simmer for 5 minutes. It should not be at a rolling boil, you just want the surface of the sauce to jiggle and move without lots of bubbling.

Next, add half a can of the tomato paste. The purpose of the paste is to thicken the sauce. Mix it in thoroughly. Save the rest of the can and put aside in case you need to thicken it more later. Add your Italian seasonings, salt, and pepper. Do not overdo the herbs at this point because you can always add more later. And keep in mind that your sausages will add quite a bit of flavor so don’t overdo the salt. Also add your 2 bay leaves. Don’t ask me what exactly they do, but I noticed that they lend a very distinctive flavor to Italian sauces and mine just doesn’t taste good without it. Keep the bay leaves whole and gently place them in the sauce. You will fish them out later before serving.

Stir and simmer for 5 minutes to let the flavors meld and then taste! You must taste the sauce before and after adding any more ingredients from this point on. This way, you learn how the ingredients change the nature of the sauce and you can take notes as to how much seasonings suit your particular tastes.

Open your bottle of wine and pour yourself a glass. Then, pour half that glass into the sauce. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes to give the alcohol a chance to evaporate. Taste! Add more if needed and taste again. Adding wine will also thin your sauce out slightly so you can add a bit more tomato paste to compensate. I usually add anywhere from half a glass to a full glass of wine.

Have it on the very lowest setting it can be at while still seeing the surface of the sauce rumbling and shaking but NOT boiling. Go ahead and slap the lid on the pot and watch TV and return every once in a while to stir and taste. Let simmer for 30 minutes at low heat.

After 30 minutes the flavors will start to come together. At this time you can add a dash more of herbs or seasonings if needed. Also at this time, add your softer vegetables such as mushrooms, carrots, or bell peppers because you only have another 30 minutes to go. If you had added them at the start, they would probably disintegrate.

Simmer 30 more minutes. ** Taste. Again, adjust seasonings as needed and fish out the 2 bay leaves. It would truly ruin a romantic moment if your date were to choke on a sharp pointy bay leaf. Serve and enjoy with a big plate of pasta and the rest of that bottle of wine.

** Serious sauce makers will tell you that you should always cook your spaghetti sauce for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to completely come together. For me, I am not that patient and so I choose to only cook mine for an hour. However, if you have the time, I encourage you to go ahead and let the sauce simmer for 2 hours, just remember to put in your softer vegetables no sooner than 30 minutes before you plan on taking it off the heat so that they remain whole.