spaghetti sauce

I should say that I only cook from recipes the first time - after that I generally wing it, especially if it's something I make very frequently, like this spaghetti sauce. this was a receep that a fellow co-oper in urbana showed me how to make (thanks, katia!) and it's sorta morphed from there. a cool thing about it: it makes a great soup, too - just add broth. it can be made vegan, by not using the reggiano 'bones' (which are optional anyway).

all measures are approximate. this can be frozen, doubled, tripled, halved, and generally abused without noticeable damage.

L can stewed tomatoes or crushed tomatoes - or some of each, whatever (you can use fresh but the organic ones are awesome)
L can tomato sauce (and I do mean L)
3 onions, roughly chopped
1 whole pkg frozen chopped spinach
2 (or more, to taste) minced-up chipotles in adobo
2 tsp crushed chili pepper flakes
a whole load of garlic (ok, ok, about 4 cloves, minimum)
a couple parmigiano reggiano 'bones' (the dried up rind of the cheese - whole foods sells these for something like thirty cents, so I buy'em and freeze'em)
1 red or green pepper, diced
some oregano
olive oil
pasta
parmigiano reggiano, shaved or grated fresh (get that green box away from me, blech!)
a nice touch, but not crucial: minced orange zest

1. carmelize onions in a little olive oil, sweet & slow, adding garlic for a minute toward the end. you can also reserve some chopped onion to add later - it will add a different flavor.

2. add everything else except the pasta and parmigiano. simmer for as long as you want, but at least an hour... this is where a crock pot comes in handy.

3. eat. freeze leftovers.