Pasta II: Rise of the Pomodoro

Once more on the theme of culinary laziness, I am going to make a large batch of tomato sauce which has many italianate uses (on pizza, on pasta, add beef and carrot for bolognese(-ish), or ham and sliced green olives). Although it can be frozen it is more useful in jars where it can be readily accessed in small amounts. They will keep for months in the fridge, and probably need a week or so the mature. Having a microwave makes canning (in jars) much easier, as we shall see. My son also loves this, so he heads off to University with a few freezer pouches of the stuff.

So we need:

Dried chopped garlic

8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 onions
1 tbsp dried chopped garlic (or 8 fat cloves, crushed)
2 small cans chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp dried basil (I'd rather use fresh but, hard time here!)
1 glass of wine
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp soya sauce

Dried chopped garlic is available from most oriental suppliers as far as I can tell and is a great time saver. It keeps for ages in an air tight jar and can be used anywhere regular chopped garlic is used, provided there is a source of moisture to reconstitute it. So it won't work for garlic bread (but a tube of garlic puree will!).

1. Coarsely chop the onions and fry in an oven-proof pan with the garlic and olive oil until translucent. Normally, you wouldn't use extra virgin to fry in, but here it is for flavour. You could use regular oil and chuck a few black olives in instead.
2. Then add the cans of tomatoes, rinsing out the cans with the wine.
3. Add the oregano and a good few turns of black pepper, and stir.
4. Pop into a medium oven for an hour and a half to reduce
   
5. When it comes out, allow to cool a little then add the basil, balsamic and saya sauce and puree with a hand blender. How smooth you make it is up to you. No, soya sauce isn't authentic but it gives the sauce a little more body. Basil has some delicate flavours which don't survive an hour and a half in the oven, which is why we add it now.
   
6. Now for the canning. You need some clean, dry canning jars with the pop-type lids that indicate a good seal. Decant the sauce into the jars (these are the big ones that I get pickled beets in, but jam jars are fine).
   
7. Now we don't mess around with boiling water baths or anything. Just pop them in the microwave and give them a solid couple of minutes until the sauce is boiling. The combination of microwaves and boiling kills bugs very effectively. 
8. Remove the jars (with gloves) and place the lids on top, holidng them in a clean teatowel. When the lids feel hot through the towel you know that the air underneath is well heated and saturated with steam, and you can screw them on. If they are the popping sort then they should pop in five or ten minutes as the jars cool and a partial vacuum is created.
9. Now, whenever you open the jar to use some sauce, microwave the remants once more before replacing the lid so it is once more sterilised and sealed. That way it keeps much longer.