metallic taste might be caused by using canned tomatoes or from overcooking the sauce as well as having the skins on since that has tannins in it. try a little bit of baking soda and some sugar in it to mitigate the taste while cooking
Are you adding some granulated sugar to your pasta sauce? I cannot stress enough the importance of sugar in any pasta sauce. Tomato has little natural sweetness, and the traditional flavors like garlic just add even more astringency to the mix. White sugar is an absolute must. My rule of thumb is add as much white sugar as you would salt.
You need to cook the tomatoes down separately. Sautee your other veg in a separate pan. Add them at the very end to just marry the sauce. Also, adding a little wine (a dry white or red - just not sweet) helps a ton.
Just to add something to your post and suggest something to the person your replied to: blanch the tomatoes to easily remove the skin. Blanching is just dropping them into boiling water for a short while, after that the skin comes right off. Breach the skin with a knife on the bottom of the tomatoes before dropping them in so there's exposed peel to pull on when they're getting out of the pan. I don't know what others do but I always salt the water a bit.
How do you prep your aromatics before adding them in? If you wanna get a more robust flavor you can grill them just enough to bring out a more robust flavor that takes it above the store bought shit. Vary ingredients where you can, throw a parmesan rind in if you've got one. You've got lots of options for ways to spice things up but the quality of your sauce base is what can be the difference between that homemade taste and that slightly above store bought taste.
I usually dice up an onion, brown it, add some Italian sausage and maybe some bone in pork chops, brown those.. add in diced garlic., let it cook for a second. Then I add some red wine to deglaze the bottom. Finally, I just add a couple of cans of San Marzanos crushed tomatoes, and cook it at a low simmer. At some point Ill add in meatballs and possibly some garlic and onion powder. But thats it. It tastes fine but not much better than a can lol. A parmesan rind sounds like a great idea though. I know a lot of people add in some pork ribs with the bone.
Bread dough is all about the feel. You gotta go in with your hands to really work it. All recipes are approximations. Better to undershoot the amount of flour and slowly ad more. The moment the dough stops sticking to your fingers it's ready to Proof.
I have a stand mixer. I’m assuming I’d have the same result once it stops sticking to the sides of the bowl?
make sure your kitchen is a decent temperature not too hot not too cold bread rises best in warm rooms.
Alton has you put the vegetables under the broiler for his pantry-friendly tomato sauce. I think it works quite well.
...and if you do fuck up, you know where the peanut butter and the loaf of bread is.
