This is really quite easy and you can experiment with herbs and spices as you wish. You might want to omit the onion - some people believe it doesn't belong in a tomato sauce, however I really think it does.

Take a large red onion and chop it finely. Crush two cloves of garlic. Heat 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a heavy pan over quite a high heat (this is one of the few times we'd suggest using extra virgin olive oil in cooking - ordinarily the flavour is too strong) and add the onion and garlic and a good pinch of salt. Stir them quickly to avoid any burning or even browning - when this looks as if it's about to happen add a couple of teaspoons of red wine or balsamic vinegar and reduce the heat a little.

Once the pan has deglazed, add a glass of red wine and reduce for five minutes, then a tin of chopped tomatoes (you can use fresh tomatoes if you want but avoid bitty, watery or under-ripe ones, and make sure that you remove the skins and seeds first before chopping them finely) and a further splash of olive oil. At this point you can add any herbs you might like - dried basil and oregano are nice but don't go overboard, you don't want any dried bits in your sauce - cover, reduce the heat and simmer for as long as you'd like to, depending on how smooth you like your sauce. Stir intermittently to stop it from burning.

If it's a little too lumpy for you you can force it through a strainer or wide-meshed sieve with a wooden spoon to catch some of the bits. Try adding three or four chopped-up anchovy fillets to the sauce when you put the tomatoes in, or a tablespoon of capers.