Gina's Basic Spaghetti Sauce

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes: drop them into a pot of boiling water for about a minute.

Drain and rinse with cold water. Slip off the skins, cut out the “core", and coarsely chop.

Set aside. In a large pot, heat the oil.

Add onion and fennel seed. Fry a couple minutes.

Add the pepper and garlic and fry a couple more minutes (don’t let the precious garlic brown or burn, please!).

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Bring to a boil, lower heat, then simmer for as long as you can (at least an hour), stirring occasionally.