Instant Pot Marinara Sauce

The garden tomatoes are doing very well this year, with one exception that something keeps poking holes in them.  I really think it’s the birds, but I’m not really sure.  So my hubby picks them before they are truly “red ripe” and puts them on the banister of our deck.  Now, if I was a bird, I just say “thank you” for putting out the buffet!

I haven’t been able to make spaghetti sauce for several years, just because the tomatoes didn’t do well for me and I never had to enough to make the sauce.  This year, I definitely don’t have that problem.  In the past, I would put the tomatoes through my squeegee, into a large roaster or crock pot and cook it for 8-12 hours.  Today I made it in the my Instant Pot using only a 10 minute cook time!  Who would ever go back to the old way? Not this gal!!

I did see a recipe on Pinterest for Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce so thought I would give it a try, with my own adaption of it.

You will need these ingredients:
Tomatoes – Depending on size I would say you need approximately 25 tomatoes. If you have the 3qt mini, then you will not need as many tomatoes.
1 large onion
3 T minced garlic
Basil
Oregano
Salt
2- 6 oz. can of tomato paste
1/3 cup sugar (optional)
Blender
Instant Pot  you can use any size, I have the 6 quart.
Canning Jars or freezer containers.

First you need to wash your tomatoes because we are going to leave the skins on.  With this recipe there is no peeling of the skins or removing the seeds so if you are someone who can’t eat tomato seeds then you could scoop out the seeds.  Remove any other blemishes that might be on the skins, you don’t want that in your sauce.

You will need a blender for this recipe.  How do you like my Vintage Hamilton Beach Blender?  I think I’ve had this blender for 35 or 40 years.  It still works great!

You will want to cut the tops and bottoms off your tomatoes then quarter them and put the chunks into the blender. I was able to do 3 tomatoes at a time. You want to blend until the tomatoes are liquified. As you are doing each batch, pour the liquid into the inner pot of your Instant Pot.

After you have put all the tomatoes through the blender and have reach the 10 cup level on your inner pot (almost to the max level).

You are going to slice your onion and put it in the blender also.  I add a little tomato juice so it blends easier.  Pour this in with your other sauce.

Add the 3 T of minced garlic.  You can use fresh garlic, I just happened to use the garlic in the jar.

Now, it’s time to add the spices.

I put 3 tsp of basil, 2 tsp of oregano and 3 tsp of salt.  If you want to add sugar, add it now.  We like a sweet sauce so I used 1/3 cup but 1-2 T will be enough to counteract the acid in the tomatoes.

Give everything a good stir, then put the lid on your Instant Pot and be sure the knob is turned to seal.

Set Manual time for 10 minutes.  This is going to take 15-20 minutes to come to pressure because of the amount of liquid.

After 10 minutes cook time, do a 10 minute NPR (Natural Pressure Release) then release the rest of the pressure, being careful due to the amount of liquid.

The spices tend to stick to the side, just use a spatula to scrape them back into the sauce. 

I have this PVC elbow that I purchased at the Hardware store to direct my steam and it helps prevent it from spitting liquid everywhere.  This is a 1 1/4″ size elbow, but the size depends on your Instant Pot. So just take your lid with you to the hardware to find the perfect fit.

After the sauce has finished cooking and you released the steam, you can use an immersion blender to blend the sauce again.   If you don’t have an immersion blender, just put the sauce back into your regular blender and blend until smooth.  If you like your sauce a little chunky, then just forget this step. Honestly, my sauce was pretty smooth even before I used the immersion blender.

This is when I add the 2 cans of tomato paste. The paste helps to make the sauce thicker.
If you used a roma tomato you may not even need the tomato paste.

Pour your sauce into sterilized canning jars, put on the lids and bands.

I have a large pressure canner that I use for canning.  I processed the quarts for 30 minutes.
If you are freezing, leave 1″ head space in your containers for expansion.
I got 7 quarts of sauce out of this batch!

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