Best Tomato Sauce Good Pasta Sauce

This is one of my best recipes for ragu.
Ragu is a tomato based sauce for pasta.
You can use it on a pizza crust and
its good as a base to make soup with.
This is a good basic tomato sauce to
have in the back of your freezer.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot or 1/2 large carrot, finely chopped
1 small stalk of celery, including the green tops, finely chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, including the juice, or 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium heat.
Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and parsley.
Stir to coat. Reduce the heat to low,
cover the skillet and cook for 15 to 20 minutes,
stirring occasionally until the vegetables
are softened and cooked through.
Remove cover and add the minced garlic.
Increase the heat to medium high.
Cook for garlic for 30 seconds.
Add the tomatoes, including the juice
breaking them up if using whole tomatoes.
Add the tomato paste and the basil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a low simmer, reduce the heat
to low and cook, uncovered until thickened.