This versatile tomato sauce recipe is a great starting place for pizza and pasta dishes. What makes this recipe stand out is how the addition of a few ingredients deepen the tomatoes' natural flavors. So many tomato sauce recipes try to use as few ingredients as possible and end up tasting like a can of tomatoes got dumped on your food, or they go the other way and ask you to cook the tomato sauce for twelve hours.
Using the olive oil sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat for a couple of minutes.
Add the tomato paste, anchovy paste, and Worcestershire sauce and give everything a good stir. Continue cooking for a few minutes while stirring, to make sure nothing burns.
Add the tomatoes, including juice, along with the fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and oregano. Let everything come to a boil, then turn the heat down to a low simmer and add the basil.
Cook for at least 30 minutes, stirring every once in a while, to let the flavors come together.
This recipe works well with diced or crushed tomatoes. The diced tomatoes create a thicker, chunkier sauce while the crushed tomato sauce is smoother.