Italian-Style Tomato Sauce

With a bumper crop of San Marzano Roma tomatoes this year, we had an abundance of tomatoes - I'm talking tomatoes in every crevice of the fridge. We decided to try making our own pasta sauce and it turned out soooooo good! Very delicious! And, like most recipes I learned something in the process :)

First, I found out that this would have been much easier if I'd had a foley food mill. But instead we boiled them tomatoes to get the skins off and then pushed the seeds out. If you're like most people you are not growing your own tomatoes so I'll include how to make this with canned tomatoes too. I used about 12 ripe Romas, boiled then removed skins and seeds. That doesn't leave you with a whole lot of tomatoes (should have gone to the garden and picked some more I guess) so I ended up adding a can of tomatoes to mine anyway.

Ingredients
3 cans of diced tomatoes (can get plain or with Italian seasoning in them, but will need to adjust the seasoning if you do)
2 T. olive oil
1 T. butter or margarine
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. white wine (yes, was going to use red but all I had on hand was white and it tasted good)
Oregano, thyme, basil or Italian seasoning to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf

1. Put butter and oil into large pot. Add onions and peppers and saute until onions are clear.
2. Add in everything else and bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 1 hour.
3. If you prefer a less chunky style sauce, you can either put this through the food processor or use an immersion blender. Just don't liquify it.
3. Remove bay leaf. Put mixture into jars or if freezing (this freezes very well) put into ziplock freezer bags.