katie's marinara sauce

I'm not fooling around when I say this is the best marinara sauce ever. You'll never, ever want to go back to a jar or can.  For convenience you can make double batches of this sauce and freeze it. Katie brought this sauce and some pasta over after my 3rd daughter was born. I ate it right up and can't recall if anyone else ever got any!

katie's marinara sauce (Katie B. from Hershey, the most faithful visiting teacher ever)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium onion
1 small carrot
large handful of fresh parsley or 2-3 tablespoons dry (use fresh!)
3 to 5 cloves garlic- crushed or minced
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3 teaspoons capers (in my opinion these are not optional)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2-3/4 can water (use to rinse out tomato sauce cans)
1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken broth
whatever protein you prefer- ground beef, ground sausage, shrimp, 1 can of oil packed tuna fish (drained), etc.

Finely chop onion, carrot (I usually grate the carrot), parsley and garlic by hand or in food processor. Saute chopped ingredients as well as basil and oregano in heated olive oil until somewhat soft. Add rest of ingredients. Simmer very slowly for 1 1/2 to 3 hours. Serve over the pasta of your choice with the freshly grated (not canned) Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese.

What I have to say- tonight I used a combination of beef and hot sausage. I simmered the sauce for a few hours to make sure the meat was nice and tender. It was!