This basic sauce can be used in just about anything that calls for a tomato-based sauce. It can be extended/altered for the dish, it is a real work horse. Some things that are good to add, depending on your dish: 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 3 tablespoons brandy, rosemary, Italian parsley, black olives, capers, anchovies  - you get the idea, feel free to improvise with what ever you have.As to the canned tomatoes, they are probably better than those hard, tasteless things things you get at the "local" Kroger or Publix. Good canned tomatoes are harvested at their peak of ripeness and they are not engineered to travel well. If you do have access to fresh ripe tomatoes, use them however. Simply blanch them  so that the skins are easy to remove (I actually boil water and then pour it over the tomatoes rather than putting them in the boiling water) and then press them through a strainer to remove the seeds. The seeds will make the sauce a little more bitter otherwise, but not unpleasant in the least.Because this sauce can be used just about anytime your recipe calls for tomatoes or tomato sauce, it is easy to double or triple up and freeze what you don't use.