Brent'S Tomato Sauce

• 6-8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion or shallots
• 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, then to taste *
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme *
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano *
• 1 glass of red wine
• 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, or 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 12 large basil leaves, torn in large pieces, or 1 tablespoon dried
• 2 28-ounce cans crushed peeled plum tomatoes with basil, drained, reserving juice

1. In a large skillet or medium-large wide pot, cook garlic briefly in olive oil over medium-low heat. Do not brown, or it will get bitter. If using optional onions, cook them 3-5 minutes in olive oil, then add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the juice from the canned tomatoes to stop the garlic cooking. Crush tomatoes with your hands or chop well on a cutting board and add to the pan. Add basil, parsley, and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper and glass of wine. Bring to a boil, stir thoroughly once, then reduce heat to a low simmer. As the acid from the tomatoes flows to the top, skim it off every 10-15 minutes. Sauce is ready in half an hour, but cook up to 1 hour if you want it thicker. Check for seasoning and add the rest of the salt and pepper, if desired.
2. Henry's notes and tips:
3. Stirring the sauce mixes the acid into it. It's okay to stir briefly right after you skim, to keep it from scorching. You can tell the acid's coming out by the foamy stuff and little pools of oil that form on the top-that's what you skim off. My mom would put one of the empty tomato cans next to the stove to catch the skimmed-off part-something I still do today.
4. Though a lot of people disagree, I never add sugar to sauce-never! If I had to use lower quality canned tomatoes, I add half a small carrot, peeled and finely grated for sweetening. Add the carrot early enough in the process so it gets completely soft. If you crush the tomatoes with your hands, watch they don't squirt you. Or your clothes. My mom taught me a way to slice garlic so thin it liquefies in the pan: with a razor.

garlic, ubc, vidalia onion, salt, thyme, oregano, glass of red wine, ubc, basil, tomatoes

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/brents-tomato-sauce-51922861 (may not work)