Bill's Sauce

I made sauce yesterday. Here's what I had on hand and what I did with it:

102 oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes, crushed (either by hand or sparingly in blender)
virgin olive oil (to saute onions and mushrooms - add tbsp when adding tomatoes)
1 lg. yellow onion, chopped
1/4 piece medium/large bell pepper, chopped
2 8 0z. packages of sliced mushrooms, broken into pieces by hand
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp. kosher salt, added immediately after mushrooms to facilitate juice release
1/3 medium carrot (small end) finely chopped
1 bouillon cube (I used "not-beef" vegan cube made by Edward & Sons)
1 bunch parsley (I use scissors and finely cut the bunch into the pot stems and all)
fresh thyme leaves (I use enough leaves to cover palm of my hand)
fresh oregano leaves (good fistful straight from the herb garden)
fresh ground black pepper (generous tbsp)
crushed red pepper flakes to taste (I usually put only a little and then add more at the table)
1/2 tsp paprika (first time I've used this - not sure why I did - but it works okay)

Saute the chopped onions, bell pepper and chopped carrots gently so as not to brown. Continue cooking onion is translucent but not starting to candy. Add broken mushroom pieces along with kosher salt stirring as needed to allow mushrooms some contact with bottom of pot. Keep heat low (or medium low) to allow mushrooms to slowly release their brothy juices. Once the mushrooms have released a generous amount of juice, add the crushed tomatoes (if using a blender to crush tomatoes, make sure that a good portion of the tomatoes are only lightly blended so that there are actual tomato chunks in the sauce. We do not want a tomato puree at all!

Bring the sauce to a light simmer, turn heat down to maintain simmer (but not boiling). Add bouillon cube, parsley, thyme and oregano (in no particular order). Add freshly ground pepper and a little more olive oil (and, if you insist, additional salt, but you really shouldn't need additional salt). You can also add the crushed red pepper flakes and paprika (if you use them).

Gently simmer about 45 minutes to an hour. The key here is "gently" - please do not boil the sauce.

Now you just need your favorite pasta, a chunk of hard Italian cheese and a cheese grinder.

Enjoy!