Marinara Sauce

This is an old familiar: a versatile Italian tomato sauce for pasta, pizza and other substrates
with a long history and with many variations.  My variety is full-flavored and complete with no
additions but marries well with mushrooms or meatballs or chicken livers and mushrooms
which would be Sauce alla Caruso.  Try what you might like and feel free to use your imagination!

Ingredients:
One large onion, chopped
One celery stalk, chopped
One red or green bell pepper, chopped
Two cloves garlic, pressed
One 28 ounce (850 ml) can of crushed tomatoes with tomato puree
One six ounce (175 ml) can of tomato paste
One eighth teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
One quarter teaspoon (1 ml) thyme
One half (2.5 ml) teaspoon fennel seed
One half teaspoon (2.5 ml) dried oregano
One bay leaf
Twenty or twenty-five fresh Italian sweet basil leaves

Method:
Place the crushed tomatoes in a crock pot and turn to high heat.   In a large skillet, warm 3 table-
spoons (50 ml) olive oil then add the onion, celery and bell pepper.   Stir to coat the vegetables
with oil and cook over medium heat.   While the vegetables are sautéeing, add the herbs and spices
to the crock pot and stir in.   When the vegetables are close to limp, add them to the crock pot.
When all is bubbling well reduce the heat to low.  Simmer for several hours.  The flavor will be not
so good at the start but will mellow and become pleasing as cooking progresses.   Taste and adjust
the seasonings near the end of the simmer.  You will probably want to leave the cover off during
some of this simmer time to reduce the sauce.  It should be thick, not soupy.
Serve over pasta of choice.