Spaghetti pasta cooked in home-made marinara sauce

For the marinara sauce

Ingredients:

• 1¹/₂ cup finely diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
• ¹/₄ cup roughly chopped basil
• 1¹/₂ tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Method:

• In a sauce-pan, add olive oil, onion, garlic and half of basil and saute on medium-high heat until onion is translucent. Season with salt (not for tomatoes yet, only for the quantity in the pan). Adding garlic & basil initially along-with the onion helps infuse their flavor really well.
• Add the crushed tomatoes, remaining basil, red pepper flakes, dried oregano and ground black pepper. Do not forget to check your can of crushed tomatoes to see if they already have salt, because if your tomatoes are already salted, you might want to taste your sauce before you add any more salt to the pan! If not, go ahead and season your pan with salt appropriate to the quantity of tomatoes you just added
• Cook on medium low heat for about 15-20 minutes; cover your pan with a lid when the sauce starts bubbling up. You can also reduce the heat if need be. 

Note - When stored in an airtight container, the sauce stays in the refrigerator for about a month!

For the pasta

Ingredients:

• ¹/₃ lb. of spaghetti pasta (I have chosen spaghetti but this basic recipe goes well with any pasta)
•  Boiling water
• Salt
• Finely chopped parsley to garnish

Method:

• Bring a big pot of water to boil; when the  water comes to a boil, add a generous quantity of salt. Remember not all salt added to the water will be infused in your pasta; also, this is the only chance your pasta has to get seasoned!
• Add your pasta and cook per the instructions on your package (it usually takes about 10 minutes). To check if it is cooked, you can also pull out a spaghetti strand while it is cooking and break a strand to see if it has cooked completely. 
• Once done, drain out the water and add 2-3 ladles of the sauce and mix together. You can vary the sauce quantity to your liking!
• Garnish with parsley. You can also garnish with some freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (aka. Parmesan cheese)

Enjoy!!