SO WHAT DID I MAKE for dinner last night? Reservations. It was definitely a 'get me the heck out of the house' kind of night.

We drove out of town, since there's not a whole lot of anything in town, and dined at a little Italian place where the food is generally, well, adequate. My expectations were reasonable, and a glass of pinot noir fairly satisfied most of them, given the sort of week it had been.

I ordered the eggplant parmigiana, and was pleasantly surprised when served the plate of thin slices lightly breaded and fried to just the right amount of crispness.

But the sauce. The sauce. Ketchup cut with Ragu. Kind of sad.

I'm a bit of a stickler about sauce. I like what I like. I don't like it sweet. I don't want it thick enough to plaster a wall. I don't want carrots or rutabagas juiced or pureed into the pot. I want simple: tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil.

Fresh sauces are another subject of course. And we could write a book about meat sauces. So, for today, a quick and dirty primer on everyday marinara.

One of the best sauces I've made lately started with a very finely chopped onion sauteed until tender in olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pot. To this I added quite a handful of dried basil (yes, fresh is better -- added at the end -- but let's face it, sometimes you go dried -- do you think that people all over Italy only use fresh?). I let it warm in the oil until it was marvelously fragrant. Then I added five cans of tomatoes -- different brands, each bringing something to the mix. I probably added a little wine, but as W. C. Fields said, "I enjoy cooking with wine . . sometimes I even add it to the food." (Sometimes a cup or more of broth goes in, if the entree warrants such an addition.)

Lots of crushed black pepper, I'm sure, as I like lots of crushed black pepper. Healthy pinches of red pepper, too. And I let all this simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring often. That's all. Not all morning. Not two hours. Forty minutes tops. At the end, I adjust the seasonings and add a healthy bit of extra virgin olive oil.

I don't add sugar. Not 'never' but almost never. Sometimes, just at the very end, if the tomatoes are simply too acidic and the cooking and spices can't mitigate the sting. But almost never.

And there's the everyday sauce.

As for the photo: that's my dog, Gustav. He hates sugar in the sauce, too.