Marinara is good enough for me.

The tomato sauce is a staple in the house.  If you have it on hand that is.  Most of us buy jars and keep them handy.  This isn't a bad thing so long as you remember it is a base but it's not really all purpose enough for me.

Here's my sauce.
1 lg can of tomato paste
2 tomato paste cans full of chicken broth
garlic powder
salt to taste
1 lg onion finely diced
2 lg cans of (pureed not crushed) tomatos
1 lg can of diced tomatos drained
Italian spice mix

Basically it's a mix it all together type of deal.  I start with the paste and chicken broth and combine it well with a wisk. Then dump everything else in except the seasonings.  Add seasonsings to taste and be careful as you can not take spice away from a dish.  Simmer on the stove for two hours, in a crock on high for 4, or in a crock on low for 8-12.  This is all depending on your situation.  You will end up with about a gallon of the red for around 10-12 dollars.  After it's cooled I ladle into the disposable tupperware and freeze.
 You can substitute fresh herbs for dried, chopped garlic for powder and fresh tomatoes for canned so have fun with it.  (btw using a food mill or a box grater on fresh tomatoes will give you a puree no problem no peeling necessary but if you use a grater be sure to remove seeds).

What to do with the sauce?  Well it's not bad as it is, but if you simmer it with mushrooms, meatballs, sausages, fish, shrimp, beef, pork, chicken, venison, etc it takes on some of the characteristics of what you cook it with and you get a whole new flavor for the price of putting it on the stove and just dumping stuff in it.  One great tip is to add cheese to your sauce as it melts in and flavors the whole sauce and serves as a thickener as well (parmesan is classic but try asiago for a real treat).

NOTE: NEVER BUY GRATED CHEESE, it's crap.  The closest you should get is the shredded parmesian in a bag.  If it looks like powder leave it on the shelf.   You can powder it in a blender/processor when you get home if you need to and you will get much better flavor and no silica (sand) to prevent clumping.  When you chop something up so fine all the oils inside which give it aroma will evaporate out, you need chunks of some sort to hold in the flavor.