Sicilian Easy Pasta Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
2/3 cup diced onion (fresh or frozen)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 (46 ounce) bottles campbell's tomato juice
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans campbell's tomato soup
12 ounces tomato paste
1 (26 1/2 ounce) carton strained tomatoes (Pomi, available in Italian markets)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tbsp fresh chopped)
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda (to cut the acid)
3 2 lbs Italian sausage or 2 lbs beef stew meat

Preparation

Heat olive oil in bottom of large sauce pot.
Add onion and cook until they are translucent.
Reduce heat and add garlic (careful as it burns easily).
Add tomato juice, soup, paste, strained tomatoes, pepper, basil and sugar.
Add baking soda carefully. It will foam up, be prepared to stir to dissipate the foam.
Simmer on low heat.
Brown meat in separate pan. Add to sauce when browned.
Simmer sauce about 2 hours.
Serve over good quality pasta. Some say it needs to rest overnight in the fridge, but who has the patience for that?