This simple and luxurious Instant Pot tomato sauce is inspired by Marcella Hazan’s classic recipe, but takes advantage of fresh summer tomatoes from your garden or CSA.
Something about September makes me want to bust out the Instant Pot for almost every meal! All summer long I only used it for rice (it makes the most PERFECT rice!), but now that it’s fall I’m ready to make all manner of sauces, soups, stews, and braises.
I’m still excited about summer ingredients, though, and gorgeous tomatoes continue to catch my eye at the farmers market and grace my CSA bag each week. This Instant Pot tomato sauce is a great way to use up some fresh late-summer tomatoes, and if you’re into freezing or canning, you can save some of their goodness for later in the year.
This sauce is super simple and is inspired by Marcella Hazan’s famous recipe that calls for only tomatoes, onion, and butter. It differs from her sauce in a few key ways, though. Of course, my sauce is made in the Instant Pot* (affiliate link; I earn from qualifying purchases. All affiliate links in this post are marked with a *) and calls for fresh tomatoes with no preparation required other than chopping them up and throwing them in the pot. Also, I like to add a little fresh basil, and I leave the onion in the sauce instead of discarding it. (This helps reduce food waste and also improves the flavor.)
After a brief stint of pressure cooking, I puree the sauce right in the Instant Pot using an immersion blender* (affiliate link), and then let the sauce reduce a bit using the Instant Pot’s “sauté” function. And that’s it! This sauce is so easy to make and great with all manner of pasta and pasta alternatives.
Wondering what kind of noodles to serve this Instant Pot tomato sauce with? Here are my favorite gluten-free pasta ideas:
- Banza chickpea pasta*
- Barilla red lentil pasta*
- Hearts of palm linguine*
- Zucchini noodles
- Sweet potato noodles
Of course, you can also use this in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce or marinara. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Bolognese-Stuffed Zucchini with Pesto
- Instant Pot Meatballs
- Zucchini Lasagna
- Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats from Pinch of Yum (Just brown ground beef or turkey and add this sauce instead of using the sauce described in the post. My husband loves these even though he “doesn’t like” spaghetti squash!)
Do you have an Instant Pot? If so, what are you most excited to make in it this fall? Also, if you have any Instant Pot recipe requests, please let me know. I’m all ears in the comments section below!
Instant Pot Tomato Sauce (made with fresh tomatoes)
This simple and luxurious Instant Pot tomato sauce is inspired by Marcella Hazan’s classic recipe, but takes advantage of fresh summer tomatoes from your garden or CSA.
Ingredients
- 4 medium ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped (4-5 cups)
- 1 small onion, halved, peeled, root end trimmed
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 3-4 sprigs of basil
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the Instant Pot. Make sure the valve is set to “Sealing”. Push “Manual” and adjust the time to 8 minutes (this will set the pot to come to high pressure and then cook for 8 minutes).
- Push “Keep Warm/Cancel” to turn off warming mode. Release the pressure manually by carefully turning the valve from “Sealing” to “Venting”. When the steam has finished escaping, remove the lid. Carefully puree the sauce with an immersion blender until your desired consistency is reached (some might choose to remove the onion, but I like to leave it in and blend it up with the sauce).
- If you’d like a thicker sauce, push “Sauté” and let the sauce bubble away for 10-15 minutes or until it reaches your desired thickness. (Based on the markings on the side of the Instant Pot, my sauce reduces from about 3.5 to 3 cups). Taste and add more salt if desired. Serve hot with pasta (see notes above) or store in the refrigerator for up to five days. You could also try freezing or canning the sauce (I have not tested that with this recipe yet).
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 servings Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 121Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 448mgCarbohydrates: 4gFiber: 1gSugar: 3gProtein: 1g
The nutrition label provided is an estimate for informational purposes only and may not be accurate. I am not a nutritionist or medical professional.
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Would this work for replacing plain tomato sauce in basic recipes? I have a bunch of tomatoes but i want to use them to replace the cans of tomato sauce that i keep in the pantry. All the recipes finding are to replace pasta sauce, so they have a lot of seasonings, herbs, and companion veggies mixed in.
That should work!