Heat your pan over medium heat until it’s nice and hot. This takes about 4 minutes on my stove. I set the timer.
Add the oil and wait for it to shimmy a bit–another 30 seconds to a minute, depending on your stove and how much oil you’re using.
Toss in the onions and then the garlic. Add a heavy pinch of salt and pepper, as well as the red pepper flake and dried herbs. Hold the dried herbs in the palm of one hand and smush them with the thumb of your other hand. Be firm. You’re trying to release as much of their oils as you can. Test me and see if I’m right: smell the herbs, pre-rub, then smell them again, post-rub. You’ll be able to tell a difference.
Stir all of this around until the onions are translucent. You can let them get a little golden, but that’s it. Keep the heat adjusted so you hear a contented sizzle as opposed to an angry sputtering. When your onions are lovely, add the tomato paste and honey and stir that around. The sugars in the tomato paste and honey will start to caramelize and add a nice depth of flavor to your sauce. If you don’t have any tomato paste, it’s really no big deal–your sauce will still be tasty without it. Ditto with the honey, although you might think about adding a teaspoon or so of sugar later in the cooking process.
If you’re feeling fancy, you can add a few splashes of wine at this point. If not, just keep going. If you do add the wine, let it cook and reduce until your onions are almost dry again.
Add the cans of tomato and heat through. Taste; you will probably need to add more salt and pepper. Let this whole thing simmer for about 20 minutes or so, add a splash of olive oil, and it’s good to go. It will taste even better if you cool it, refrigerate it and then reheat it. It’s not necessary, though. The leftovers will taste great the next day, anyway.
Cook pasta in plenty of well-salted water. Do not add oil, or the pasta will just be slippery and not absorb your sauce.
Before draining, dip out about 1/3-1/2 cup of cooking water. Set that aside, then drain your pasta.
Put all the pasta back in the pan. And put the pan back over high heat.
Add as much sauce as you like to the pasta (if you like drier pasta, add less. If you like it "juicy," add more), the cooking water, some unsalted butter or a splash of heavy cream, a drizzle of olive oil and a few gratings of parmesan cheese (the canned kind is just fine, if that's all you have). Stir this around--it will boil and sputter and hiss--until the sauce has reduced to a lovely consistency.
Plate it up, drizzle on some olive oil (or not) and finish with a wee pinch of finishing salt, a grind or two of black pepper, and a little grated cheese.
The chunkier your sauce is, the heartier your pasta can be.
Cook your pasta so it still is a little firm in the center--al dente. You'll be cooking it some more once the sauce is in, and overcooked pasta is a mushy mess.
Adding a little cooking water plus the extra fat (cream/butter/oil) at the end and stirring gives you a bit of an emulsion. The sauce will be silky and wonderful.
There is nothing sadder than a plate of naked noodles with some red sauce dropped on top. Let all your pasta soak up the flavor.
