New hack
I dry a bunch of tomatoes, enough to last around a year, In the past I rehydrate them and use like you would with any dried tomato. My daughter has been asking for homemade red sauce at least once a week. We happened to be out of tomato paste, so I took a handful of the dehydrated ones and put them in my spice grinder and tossed them in with some drained diced canned tomatoes,which thickened the sauce perfectly in a few minutes.
Italian grandmothers may not approve, but man, does it speed the process up considerably and add a depth of flavor that isn't otherwise attainable in such a short time.
I guess one of recent hacks, since I've been making Chinese take out style things and a couple Japanese dishes that call for thickening, is to keep a little bottle of sake or Shaoxing wine mixed with corn or potato starch slurry in the fridge. Just grab, shake and "qian" or thicken.