I know, I know, I owe you guys a recipe. EXAMS ARE HARD AND CRUMMY. But here is a recipe for the best homemade tomato sauce ever, so there’s that. Let it warm your sad, malnourished graduate-student soul.

Chop your tomatoes. I’ve used campari tomatoes, which are essentially super-big cherry tomatoes.

Onion, garlic, etc.

All aboard!

Stir and cook it down.

Makes one lovely liter.

Sauce it up:

• 1/4 c olive oil
• 1/4 c tomato paste
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2lb fresh raw tomatoes, chopped (I use campari tomatoes, which I highly recommend. Perfect size, flavor, and texture. Make sure you use good tomatoes for this!)
• 5 cloves of garlic, chopped small
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped small but not minced

This sauce will cook for one hour. You can stir it whenever you like beyond the basic instructions below, and you’ll need to keep an eye on it from time to time.

Assemble all of the ingredients in a large pot, and stir everything together. Cook the stuff on low (or possibly a bit higher), covered, for 30 minutes. Then stir it again and cook with the cover on again for a further 20 minutes. Last, cook it uncovered for the final ten minutes.