Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

Serves: 4 (makes enough sauce to coat a pound of spaghetti)

Ingredients:
43.5 ounces canned whole peeled tomatoes *
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Put the tomatoes, onion, butter, and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat.
2. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon.
3. Remove from heat, discard the onion, and salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you don’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

* If you can find San Marzano tomatoes, they are the best, but I made this with sauce with grocery-store brand canned tomatoes and it still came out delicious.