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Use a food processor to chop up your veggies (carrots, onion, celery, zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, etc.), to whatever size you like.
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Dump all of them into a extra large pan, heated up with a little olive oil. Saute until veggies soften (since mine were so fine, this just took a couple minutes.)
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Add the sugar, salt, and pepper to the veggies, mix well. (You can also add red pepper flakes if you like a little spice to your sauce.)
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In a separate pan, cook up your meat, drain, and set aside.
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Dump all of your cans of stewed tomatoes and tomato paste into a large pot. You'll probably need a big stock pot. If you want your sauce tomato-chunky, leave it be. If you want it smooth, dip your immersion blender in it and blend until you reach desired smoothness/chunkiness. If you don't have an immersion blender and want a smoother sauce, you can dump your cans into the blender, then pour into the pot.
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Add your veggie mixture to the tomato sauce, mix well. If you're adding meat, dump that in too.
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Let the sauce simmer on the stove for 3 to 5 hours, without a lid.
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The last half hour of cooking, add your basil.
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Taste the sauce and see if it needs anything else...salt, pepper, sugar, seasoning