Favorite Tomato Sauce for Pasta

 I've been making this for years, and it changes little over time. This is the sauce I made for the rehearsal dinner when Laurel and I got married, and it's what I serve to my Freshman Seminar students when they come over to dinner. (vegan)

Now Gavin has begun to cook it too. He especially likes it as a pizza sauce with a pita bread crust.

Sauté in 3-4 Tablespoons of good olive oil, stirring frequently:
4-6 cloves crushed garlic
3 large chopped onions
2 seeded sweet bell peppers (green or red, according to your preference)
1 medium unpeeled eggplant, diced into small cubes
1 medium zucchini, diced into cubes (optioal)
1 Tablespoon crushed dried sweet basil
1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano

When the onions are quite soft and the eggplant is cooked, add:
2-3 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes (or peeled Italian tomatoes, hand crushed)
1-2 6 ounce cans tomato paste
1/2-3/4 cup chopped black olives (canned black olives are fine, Calamata olives are even better)
2 Tablespoons capers (chopped if they are not tiny)
salt and pepper to taste

Simmer the sauce for as long as you can, at least several hours. If you need to thin it along the way, use either water from rinsing out the canned tomatoes, or a dry white wine. I like to buzz about half the sauce in a food processor for a thicker consistency.