Instant Pot Tomato Sauce is a thick and rich sauce typically made with tomatoes, garlic, onion and basil. This recipe details how to make an easy homemade sauce with fresh tomatoes in just 30 minutes. Use it as a spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce. It is hearty, wholesome with no added oil, sugar or preservatives !
As summer winds down and you have garden overflowing with surplus tomatoes, this is the recipe you want to have ! This staple recipe for homemade tomato sauce tastes way better than store-bought sauce. Guaranteed !
From start to finish, you can make this tomato basil sauce under an hour. But it is SO rich and delicious, it tastes like it has been simmered all day. That’s the magic of pressure cooking for you folks!
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This recipe makes best Instant Pot Tomato Sauce . It is very similar to Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce. You can add choice of protein to make it suitable. It also can be used as Instant Pot Marinara Sauce or dipping sauce.
Speaking of tomato recipes, be sure to try our fabulous creamy tomato soup for a cozy hearty meal. Instant Pot Tomato Chutney is perfect to preserve the fresh tomatoes. Pasta Rosa is wonderful family dinner.
Ingredients
Basic , inexpensive ingredients are used to develop the rich complex flavor of this delicious sauce.
Fresh Tomatoes – This recipe is perfect to use up all the freshly harvested summer garden tomatoes. Typically plum tomatoes are used to make sauce. So Roma or San Marzano are ideal but honestly, use any tomatoes you that are easily available.
Onion – Adds wonderful flavor. Red onion, sweet onion or white onion anything is fine. Shallots also work.
Garlic – Can’t skip garlic. Minced or fresh garlic cloves add pungent flavor to the sauce.
Carrots – Carrots help reduce the tartness and acidity of the tomato sauce. They also add a bit of sweetness and you can use them as a natural sweetener instead of sugar. If you don’t want to use carrots, add a tablespoon of raw sugar to balance the flavor.
Herbs and seasoning : Tomatoes and basil grow together in my garden. So I add fresh basil to flavor the sauce. I use store bought Italian Seasoning for the additional flavor. Salt and ground black pepper round up the taste.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make
- Gather all the ingredients. Wash tomatoes in clean cold water.
- Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and seasoning in the Instant Pot inner steel pot.
- Close the lid, seal the vent and pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes.
- After it is done cooking, allow the pressure to naturally release. ( do not do quick release- hot liquid will spray out)
- When the pressure pin drops, open the lid. Add fresh basil and let it wilt for few minutes.
- Using a blender, blend the sauce until your desired consistency. Adjust the salt, pepper and seasoning. Use as desired.
Helpful Hint : If you notice the sauce has too much liquid and runny, press SAUTE button and let it cook further for some more time. You should stir it well every few minutes. The sauce will reduce and thicken as the liquid evaporates.
Why you should make Tomato Sauce in an Instant Pot?
There’s so much to love about Instant Pot method when making this recipe. Traditionally this sauce is made on a stove top using a big sauce pot. It takes hours to cook the tomatoes and simmer them in juices so they thicken to right consistency. You have to stir and monitor it throughout to ensure best results.
This Instant Pot Marinara Sauce makes things super easy. No need to constantly monitor and stir. It is basically a dump and go, One Pot cooking recipe and you just the blend it at the end. Easy clean up afterwards. And most importantly, it tastes like it’s been simmered all day. I just love these easy recipes.
Hint: This method also works best as it is a No Peel Tomato Sauce.
Substitutions
This recipe is suitable for vegan and gluten free food choices. It also is no oil, no added sugar and preservative free.
- Tomatoes – I am enthusiastically suggesting to use garden fresh tomatoes to make this homemade tomato spaghetti sauce. However, canned and frozen tomatoes also work beautifully if you don’t have fresh tomatoes available. The taste varies based on the type of tomatoes you use, but trust me, nothing beats the homemade sauce over store bought.
- Herbs – For convenience, I am using premix Italian Seasoning but you can add onion powder, garlic powder, dried oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary instead.
- Oil – I didn’t use oil. But you can sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil before pressure cooking for extra bit of flavors.
Variations
This recipe is easy to customize. Here are few other options to consider
- Spicy – add red pepper flakes to add heat into the sauce
- Wine – Wine helps reduce the acidity and naturalize the flavors. You can add any sweet cooking wine.
- Additional ingredients like capers, olives, and tomato paste can be added to the sauce.
Equipment
I used my favorite 6 quart Instant Pot. Anything bigger in size will work too. I have also used an Immersion blender to make the sauce in one pot. Glass Mason Jars with lids ( wide mouth) are my favorite containers for storing this sauce.
Storage
This is a great recipe for storing the summer produce. You can scale and double or triple the recipe.
Refrigerator : Freshly made sauce can be stored for 4 days in the refrigerator. Make sure to cool it down completely. To retain flavors, store it in air tight glass containers.
Freezer : You can freeze the sauce for up to six months. I recommend to freeze it in smaller / individual portions so you can defrost and use only what is needed.
Top tips
- No Need to peel the tomatoes. All I do is roughly chop everything and dump in the instant pot pressure cooker. Immersion blender takes care of smoothly blending the sauce.
- If the tomatoes are not juicy, add ½ cup of liquid – broth or water so that the pressure can be built. You also should press down the tomatoes in the instantpot so that release the juice.
- You control the smoothness and texture of the sauce in blending process . Adjust to make it chunky, smooth or in between.
Serving Suggestions
Pasta Sauce : You can use this as a pasta sauce. My family loves this Spaghetti Sauce with parmesan cheese for weeknight dinners. Instead of store bought sauce, use it in Instant Pot Stuffed Shells or Spaghetti Lentil Bolognese. You can also use it with zucchini noodles and spaghetti squash.
Pizza Sauce : You can also spread it on pizza as a pizza sauce like our favorite Air Fryer Naan Pizza.
As a Dip : Marinara sauce is perfect dipping sauce. We love to serve it with Air Fryer Fried Pickles, Air Fryer Toasted Ravioli and Air Fryer Smashed Potatoes.
Soups : Replace the can of tomatoes while making different soups. It is great in soups like Vegetable Orzo Soup , Stuffed pepper soup and Vegetable Barley Soup.
Q&As
Tomato sauce is made from pureed tomatoes seasoned with onions, carrots, celery and bay leaf. The sauce is left to simmer until thick and tastes sweeter. It is a great way to preserve the fresh tomatoes. It can be used in multitude of dishes like soups, pasta, stews and casseroles.
Marinara sauce is chunky thick sauce typically used a dipping sauce. Spaghetti Sauce is a sauce that coats the pasta and spaghetti . Traditionally spaghetti sauce is made by adding meat, proteins, seafood or cheese to the Marinara sauce. Both marinara sauce and spaghetti sauce have basic common ingredients like tomatoes, onion, garlic, herbs and seasoning.
You can add sweeteners like raw sugar or carrots to balance the sweetness and there by acidic tart taste of tomatoes. A pinch of baking soda also acts as a antacid and neutralizes the flavor. A splash of sweet red wine helps. A teaspoon of sweet cocoa also does the trick.
It depends upon your personal preference. If you like the sauce chunky, no need to strain it. Just blend it smooth paste and use it. If you want to not have any seeds or chunky pieces, filter it through fine mesh sieve.
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Instant Pot Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 5 lbs tomatoes halved – roughly 8 cups
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 carrot diced
- 8 garlic cloves minced
- 2½ Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- ¼ cup fresh basil chopped
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Wash tomatoes in clean cold water.
- Add the tomatoes, carrots, onion, garlic and seasoning in the Instant Pot inner steel pot.
- Close the lid, seal the vent and pressure cook on high for 15 minutes.
- After it is done cooking, allow the pressure to naturally release. ( do not do quick release- hot liquid will spray out)
- When the pressure pin drops, open the lid. Add fresh basil and let it wilt for few minutes.
- Using a blender, blend the sauce until your desired consistency. Adjust the salt, pepper and seasoning. Use as desired.
Notes
- If you notice the sauce has too much liquid and runny, press SAUTE button and let it cook further for some time. You should stir it well every few minutes. It will thicken the sauce as the liquid evaporates.
- No Need to peel the tomatoes. All I do is roughly chop everything and dump in the instant pot pressure cooker. Immersion blender takes care of smoothly blending the sauce.
- If the tomatoes are not juicy, add ½ cup of liquid – broth or water so that the pressure can built without burn notice. You also should press down the tomatoes in the instantpot so that release the juice.
- You control the smoothness of the sauce while blending . Adjust to make it chunky, smooth or in between.
- I used plum Roma tomatoes to make this sauce.
Nutrition
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