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easy ways to jazz up your tomato sauce
There's no limit to the number of goodies you can use to transform your simple sauce into something a whole lot more substantial. Here are a few ideas to get you started -- feel free to combine, substitute, and experiment at will:

1 Smooth Tomato Sauce | Puree the finished product by tossing it in a blender or food processor. Naturally, you should exercise caution when zizzing hot ingredients -- don't fill the blender all the way to the top, and hold the lid on tightly with a thick cloth (that you don't mind getting dirty).
2 Herbed Tomato Sauce | Add a big handful of fresh basil leaves, torn into little bits. Fresh oregano or marjoram (you'll need about a tsp, but add to taste) also make good additions, either alone or in conjunction with the basil. Dried oregano is okay, though not as nice as the fresh version; dried basil, on the other hand, is a fairly flavorless ingredient that bears little resemblance to the taste of fresh leaves.
3 Chock full o' Veggie Tomato Sauce | Add half cup each of minced carrot and minced celery as you're sautéing the onions and garlic. Puree the finished sauce.
4 Fancy Tomato Sauce | Pour a ¼ cup of wine (red or white, your choice) into the pot when you add the tomatoes. The alcohol will eventually bubble away and imbue your tomato sauce with a richer, deeper flavor.
5 Spicy Tomato Sauce | Add a generous shake of crushed red pepper to taste at any point in the cooking time. Pasta served with this sauce is sometimes referred to as arrabbiata -- literally "angry-style."
6 Spinach Tomato Sauce | Add a few generous handfuls of washed spinach leaves when the tomatoes are nearly cooked-down to the proper consistency. Continue cooking until the leaves are good and tender.
7 Mushroom Tomato Sauce | Add about two cups fresh sliced mushrooms to the oil, after the onions and garlic have softened. Continue cooking until the mushrooms release their liquid. When they're no longer swimming in water, add the tomatoes.
8 Puttanesca Sauce | Add a couple of tablespoons of drained capers, a heap of pitted black olives (you can halve or slice them if you wish), plus a good sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes. One of my favorite sauces.
9 Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce | Chop up a roasted red pepper or two and add it to the tomatoes as they're cooking. This sauce is also quite nice pureed.

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