3/4 of a small can of tomato paste
2 28 oz cans of petite diced San Marzano tomatoes
1 purple eggplant (cubed into 1/2" square cubes)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Fresh Oregano (careful, you don't need much of this)
Fresh Basil (Get carried away)
Kosher salt and Fresh cracked black pepper
1 large Mirepoix (3 onions, 2 stalks of clelery, and 1/2 bunch of finely diced carrots)
1 clove of garlic (pressed or shaved) (I press)
1 Tbsp of Garlic Powder
1 cup of Red Wine
2 Tbsp of Sugar
2 cups of Chicken Broth

Begin with heating your pot to med-med high, add about 2-3 tbsp of olive oil and get hot. Now add your cut up mirepoix and a little kosher salt to sweat it and cook down. About 2/3 of the way through I add my garlic, fresh cracked black pepper, chopped oregano, and chopped up basil and garlic powder and cook until sexy, stirring frequently so as to not burn the garlic or herbs. Now I deglaze with my red wine and cook it down for about 2 minutes or so, stirring to mix it all together and make sure nothing is on the bottom of my pot.

Now I take my olive oil and add a little more to the pot. Usually at this point there is very little oil floating around so I put about three more tbsps in the pot, and once hot again I put my tomatoe past in and stir and scrape the bottom of the pot often. Kind of like making a roux, but I want it to stick a little bit so as to brown it real nice. I do this for probably 20 minutes or so, until I can see it has gone from it's original red color to more of a darker brown red. You will know it when you see it as it starts to kind of break down. That's ok. You want to see that.

Once you've gotten it browned real nice, add your chicken broth, sugar, cans of tomatoes, and eggplant cubes and stir well to get everything together. Bring to a simmer and place the top on my pot and let it go at a slow simmer for about 3 hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes or so to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom, more frequently towards the end. The longer you cook this down the better, but I find that around 3 hours is plenty. Now I will completely remove the top and let it reduce until it's where I want it, stirring occassionally to make sure as it reduces it doesn't stick to the bottom.