Spaghetti making question.

That sounds like a question I might of asked 30 years ago when I was in college and tired of eating fast food and became interested in cooking.

man it's SO easy to make red sauce

onion garlic olive oil canned tomatoes salt & pepper
to that you can add tomato paste, herbs, mushrooms, whatever you want
it's cheaper too

you are already dirtying up a pot

exactly

there's a hundred tomato sauces and they are all good (and easy)
plus that canned stuff has a ton of sugar

step away from the ragu

Skip the ragu, buy a couple cans of whole tomatoes (look for Red Gold or Cento brands, WalMart sells both). Chop your onions, garlic, sauté until soft/fragrant in butter or olive oil in a medium sized pot, add the mushrooms & cook a little more. Pour in a glass of wine--whatever you've got, red, white, boxed, it doesn't matter. Let the wine bubble up, scrape the bottom of the pot. Plop those canned whole tomatoes into the pot atop all that good sautéed stuff....use a potato masher or a big fork to break up the tomatoes. Stir well, allow to come to a simmer, and reduce the heat to low. Keep cooking until the oil floats to the top & the sauce is as thick as you'd like.

If you like adding veggies like choppe zucchini, carrots, spinach, etc, you can add them in when you turn the heat down to a simmer.

If you want to get REALLY fancy with the ragu, get two smaller jars with different flavors.

I like smooth sauce, too. I buy imported San Mariano tomato purée. Comes out perfect.

I personally follow the Clemenza method frequently. Super easy and you never know if you have to feed twenty guys someday.

Godfather Spaghetti Sauce

Marcella Hazan suggests cutting an onion in half and sautéing the onion in butter, add peeled tomatoes and let simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, then remove the cooked onion and remaining tomato skin before you mix the sauce with pasta.

She instructs to never cook a tomato sauce with the cover on. This makes the sauce thick and rich, not watery from the condensation that occurs from the steam on a covered pot.

Cento Crushed tomatoes in the can - like everyone else sez, its too easy not to make ur own