Instead of my traditional ground pork I went with ground turkey at half the price. There is literally a 2:1 turkey:pasta ratio. The sauce is a heavily seasoned can of crushed tomatoes. Garlic knots have been hiding in the freezer forever and were free back when I got them.
Cost per person: $2.25
Making the jars hotter won’t really impact the temperature of the stuff you put into the jars. Also, you’re probably going to dramatically short the life of your jars due to the uneven heating in an oven creating thermal shock in the glass.
The risk isn’t so much from the airborne particles because most of that stuff is going to easily be killed off by the boiling process. The real risk is the botulism spores that can be inherent in anything grown in the ground, but especially root vegetables like garlic and onion. The proper temperature to kill botulism is 250°f (not sure what the Celsius is). Pressure canners get up to 240 which is why you have to heat things for 60 to 90 minutes on average depending on density to achieve that 240 long enough to kill the spores. But again, tomatoes are pretty low risk situation as long as that pH is under 4.6.
I wouldn’t adjust the method you’re using. It’s not ideal, but the other things will not just complicate things. They won’t improve safety and in fact they will probably shorten the life of your glassware.
Ok the food itself has quite a time in my pressure pot. I didn’t measure it, but the pressure setting I use should go to 120C/248F, so the food itself should be safe. When I release pressure it quickly cools down to the atmospheric boiling point and then I fill it in glasses and just use the hour in the oven to make sure there’s nothing left “I catch” from my hands or air when filling in glasses.