Italian Tomato Sauce with Pasta

This is basically homemade spaghetti sauce. I found the recipe in my Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics cookbook. It was a wedding gift and served me well in the beginning of our marriage when I was trying to figure things out. We've been using a lot of tomatoes lately in an effort to keep our garden harvest from going to waste.

Italian Tomato Sauce with Pasta

1 medium onion
1 large clove garlic
1 small green bell pepper (I had red so that's what I used.)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 can whole tomatoes, undrained (I used fresh tomatoes from our garden, diced.)
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 Tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fennel seed (I omitted.)
1/8 tsp pepper
8 oz. uncooked spaghetti, fettuccine or linguine

1) Peel and chop the onion. Peel and mince the garlic. Chop up the pepper, enough to measure 1/4 cup.

2) Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat 1-2 minutes. Cook onion, garlic and pepper in oil for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3) Stir in the tomatoes with their liquid, and break them up with a fork. Stir in the tomato sauce, basil, oregano, salt, fennel seed and pepper. Heat to boiling over high heat. Once mixture is boiling, reduce heat just enough so mixture bubbles gently and does not spatter.

4) Cover and cook 35 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes to make sure mixture is just bubbling gently and to prevent sticking. Lower the heat if sauce is bubbling too fast.

5) After the tomato sauce has been cooking about 20 minutes, cook the pasta according to package directions.

6) Drain pasta and serve with sauce and grated Parmesan cheese.