Quick and Easy Marinara

I had a friend ask for a quick and easy marinara sacue she could use for dinner. I gave her mine, and thought I would share it with all you as well. This sauce, coupled with 1/2 pound of pasta, will feed two to three people.

Ingredients

1/2 large onion diced
1 can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon dried basil
salt to tastepepper to taste

Directions

Dice onion. Put sautee pan over medium high heat, then add one tablespoon butter and one tablespoon olive oil. Add onion and sautee until onion is translucent, stirring often (4-6 minutes). Add tomato sauce, cover with lid but leave space for steam to escape, drop heat to medium and cook 9-11 minutes, stirring often. Take off heat and stir in 1 tablespoon olive oil and basil. (Add olive oil after the sauce has come off the heat because raw olive oil has a different taste than cook olive oil.) Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add ins

You can dress this up with protein in any number of ways. My favorite is to add about 1/4 pound of browned ground beef. Another option is to add three strips of cooked (but not browned) bacon. Tuna is another suggestion. Enjoy.