creamy tomato sauce for pasta

So this is a base sauce that I use for a lot of different pasta dishes.  Tonight I served it over spinach and cheese ravioli that I bought from costco (the fresh ones, not the frozen).  It is my dream to start making homemade pasta. If I ever had a whole day all alone, I would go to williams and sonoma, buy a pasta roller (and some other stuff, you can't walk out of there with just one thing!) and I would learn to make fresh pasta! Now I just need to figure out how to get a whole day all alone . . . .  I digress.

As I was saying, this is a one of my base sauces, often times I will add things like artichokes and mushrooms, or zucchini or any other vegetable. 

Ingredient list:

1 28 oz can petite diced tomatoes

2 T tomato paste

1 fined diced onion

3 minced garlic cloves

1/2 t to 1 t red pepper flakes (depends on how much spice you want)

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 c cream

2 T extra virgin oil

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add onions and garlic, give them a little salt and pepper. Saute until they are translucent and fragrant.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, red pepper flakes, and a little more salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer on low for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now here is where you taste it, you should taste the spice, if you don't you need to add more red pepper flake,  when you add the cream it is going to mellow out the spice. You are also tasting to make sure it has enough salt and pepper. If it doesn't taste good, and all you 're getting is the after kick of the red pepper, it means you need salt! Once it is seasoned good, add the cream and stir.  Let it stay on low heat until the cream is well incorporated, and it warms up,  you don't want it to boil. Now what I didn't do tonight, was pull out the flat leaf parsley that was just sitting in my fridge, begging to make this dish look beautiful. So do what I couldn't manage to do. Sprinkle your dish with some fresh chopped parsley.

Use with your favorite pasta!