Marinara Sauce

Method

1. Tip 250 g of tinned whole peeled tomatoes and all their juice into a bowl and crush them to a rough pulp with your hands, pinching out any hard core or stray piece of skin. Leave the texture coarse — marinara is never smooth.
2. Put 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a small heavy saucepan or a 20 cm frying pan with 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves and 1 pinch of dried chilli flakes. Set over low heat from cold and let the garlic infuse for about 2 minutes, until it turns pale gold at the edges and smells sweet. Do not let it brown or the sauce will taste bitter.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes all at once — they will hiss and spit, so stand back — and raise the heat to medium until the surface bubbles steadily. Stir in 0.25 tsp of dried oregano, rubbing it between your fingers as it goes in, and 0.25 tsp of fine sea salt.