There is a roasted red pepper spread which is quite thick. I use this recipe and add roasted onions, and roasted garlic to it, along with balamic vinegar and even some citric acid. Its got no tomatoes, but I suppose you could add those too. Just be sure to give it at least 1 teaspooon of citric acid per quart. I also use some dried peppers that are ground up. All this gets pureed in a big blender before boiling and filling the jars. I even add some rosemary to the mix..

A good way to deal with tomatoes is to use the Villaware/Roma food strainer. They offer a 1/4 inch holed salsa screen that can give you minced tomato bits, and there would be no need to worry about skins and most of the seeds, as they are usually seperated and come out the waste end of the conical sieve. With this handd operated machine, you can make large amounts of salsa or sauces in less than 30 minutes. Adding more higher strength vinegar, or bottled lemon or lime juice can also help raise the acidity a bit as can adding citric acid. But as stated its not a safe recipe to can.

i read this saveur article a while back where they fried up some thin sweet/hot peppers, cut them up, and tossed them with fresh pasta and breadcrumbs. tried it with some padron peppers, and it ended up really good. don't even need pasta sauce! the oil and juices from the blistered peppers is enough to keep the pasta from sticking.

PWM, just remember the adjectives: A half hour sauce should be "fresh", "bright", "clean". A five hour sauce should be "rich", "complex", "deep". Re making your own tomato base, a lot depends on where you live, and how good the tomatoes really are, whether homegrown or bought. If you have great tomatoes, and are planning to use them for pasta sauce, it's most common to process and can or freeze them at their peak. The recipes are the same whether you use commercial or home made. My idea of pasta with fresh tomatoes, however, is along the lines of what Ruthanna posted, rather than making puree for days for just one pot of sauce. By the time it's cooked down, I don't find enough difference between homemade and the good kind of bought to make a big enough difference for a long simmered, complex sauce which cooks the "freshness" right out of it. I did that when I had no way to can or freeze, and plenty of extra hours for mindless cooking, but it's not efficient. :) Much better to use the fresh tomatoes as fresh, unless you're preserving your garden's produce or live in a place where excellent tomatoes aren't common.