From: Johnny Pence the theory with fresh tomatoes is to use plum tomatoes and get the water out. to go with a fresh-tasting sauce, you cut 'em up into chunks, put them in a collander, salt them liberally with kosher salt, and let them drain for an hour or more. then grind 'em up to your level of smoothness (i like it schmoove). i leave the seeds and skins in, but you don't have to. heat up a good bit of olive oil in a pan. in the hot oil, put just a little bit of garlic (about one clove per quart or even less), fresh basil and oregano to taste, maybe some parsley, and get them barely aromatic. then lots of salt and pepper. then in with the tomatoes until the mix is hot and bubbling and steamy, but then you're done. pour it right on your meal. don't fuck around with too many ingredients. if you want to throw in the kitchen sink, do it in the next method this fisrt style is REAL good on its own or with anatomically recognizable chicken pieces, fresh mozz, fresh basil, stinky eggplant, etc. it has a more summery feel, and it really does seem like there's stock or butter in it if you use good tomatoes. this is my preferred pizza sauce. the other way to get the water out is to skip the draining but cook it all day with the same basic ingredients (i use more garlic and lots more black pepper), and add red wine. if you want mushrooms or green peppers, add them early. a little bit of rosemary is good if you'll be adding pork; this is a very good sauce for cooking with red meat. you coudl >start< with the meat early (so the grease permeates every molecule) if you're doing small batches, but i usually cook a half-gallon or so and freeze it, then bust it out with sausages or meatballs as needed. this is my preferred lasagne or casserole parmiagana sauce BUT this time of year, you can't get good fresh tomatoes except for cherry tomatoes. they will work, but have so much peel you'll be reminded of your meal on the toilet the next day and they have a whole lot of water to drain off. the guy who runs peppino's pizza here in athens told me he starts by draining canned italian plum tomatoes and goes from there from scratch. he offered to "teach me" for free, which i appreciate, but i joked about how "teaching me" might mean "letting me wash dishes" and he looked me right in the eye and said, "eh, you wanna learn?" every time i've seen somebody cooking on TV with good plum tomatoes, they always say "if you can get them fresh, that's best. but don't fuck around with store-bought tomatoes off-season; just buy a can of Cento plum tomatoes and use them the same way." so i ASS-U-ME that they're roughly interchangeable.