tomato sauce (far from perfect but tasty)

According to Samin Nosrat (who I have become acquainted with reading her book and watching the Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat), Chez Panisse (where Samin worked for years) has a contest every year [?] for the best tomato sauce. I can't imagine anyone uses canned tomatoes but I live in the real world and canned tomatoes cost $1.89 for 28 ounces so I try and boil out whatever bad flavor the canning process gives them. I've made this sauce hundreds of times and will continue to fine tune it. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of Hunt's whole tomatoes (28 ounce)
• 1 good sized onion
• 1 stick of butter 
• Italian seasonings (to taste)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tsps garlic
• sugar (if needed to heighten flavor of tomatoes)
• Kosher salt to taste

Directions:

1. Pour two cans of tomatoes in a saucepan and blend with immersion blender until desired consistency
2. Peel and cut an onion in half length-wise; add both halves to saucepan
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for 45 minutes or until desired thickness
4. Everything cooks down so constantly taste
5. Remove onion halves and bay leaves

Serve over rotini, linguine, chicken, meatballs, pizza/bread, or whatever you can find