Marinara Sauce a la Stacy

When we lived in Germany I had a wonderful friend (well, I still do, but that's where we met) named Stacy. She made homemade spaghetti sauce that was so good, it was very hard not to just eat it with a loaf of bread *Do you hear that? It's the voice of experience because one time, I DID eat it with a loaf of bread* When I asked her for the recipe, she was kind enough to share and for the past 10 years I have used it as my own. Now you can too!
The Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cups chopped onions

2 Tbsp freshly chopped basil (or you can use dried)

1 cup finely chopped carrots

1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

1 Tbsp oregano

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

4 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes

2 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1/3 cup chopped parsley

salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large stockpot and saute the onions and carrot until golden.

Add the garlic and tomatoes (including tomato sauce).

Simmer, partially covered for 15 minutes.

While simmering, mix together the salt, pepper, basil and oregano. Add to sauce when 15 minutes is up.

Also add the Parmesan cheese.

Please don't be overly jealous of my fabulous Hulk bowl! Simmer, partially covered for 30 minutes. Stir in parsley and season more if needed.

Add parsley.

Serve over hot cooked noodles or use in any recipe that calls for spaghetti sauce.

You can also go the aforementioned loaf-of-bread-route. This makes a LOT of sauce and it freezes beautifully. I have also prepared this in a crockpot. After sauteing the onion and carrot, just add all ingredients except parsley to the crockpot and turn on low heat until serving. Add parsley just before serving. It only gets better the longer it sits! I have also added meat many times, or meatballs. Put the cooked meat in before the 30 minutes simmer.