Instant Pot Marinara Fresh Tomato Sauce recipe makes a big batch of delicious sauce that you can use as spaghetti sauce, or any recipe that calls for a flavorful pasta sauce. Pressure cooker marinara sauce from fresh tomatoes is a great way to use up your summer bounty of garden fresh tomatoes!
Originally published 8/26/18
Homemade Instant Pot Marinara Tomato Sauce
My garden is doing very well this year, and the tomatoes are ripening, with some to pick every day! I like to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, and I especially enjoy making Instant Pot Marinara Fresh Tomato Sauce.
This year I planted several varieties: Early Girl, Whopper, Beefsteak, Roma, Cherry, and Yellow Pear. Paul likes to snack on the cherry tomatoes, and I like the Early Girls and Whoppers for cheese and tomato sandwiches! Yum!
So far this season the plants have yielded about 15 pounds all together. We will get a few more pounds as the growing season is coming to an end. The Yellow Pear tomatoes will keep going for a while yet as they come on later in the summer than the others.
You can tell how much I enjoy growing my own tomatoes! They just taste so perfect when they are homegrown. The ones in the store don’t have any flavor, as far as I’m concerned. So I don’t make Instant Pot Marinara Fresh Tomato Sauce from store bought. Ever.
I like to buy Rao’s® or Newman’s Own Marinara® if I don’t have any of my own homemade tomato sauce.
Making marinara sauce with fresh tomatoes in the pressure cooker is easy, and faster than the stove top. I love the results!
Here’s how to make Instant Pot Marinara Fresh Tomato Sauce
![Four process images showing gathering of the ingredients, sauteing onion, adding tomato, and adding red wine]()
![Four process images showing the addition of spices, tomaote paste, then setting pressure cooker cook time and blending the sauce]()
How To Deal With Acidic Marinara Sauce
Using fresh tomatoes to make your Instant Pot Marinara Sauce can sometimes yield a sauce that is too acidic for some tastes. It happens sometimes. Your results will vary by how sweet the tomatoes are.
The cocoa powder in the sauce helps the acidity, and it adds a nice complexity to the sauce. You will not notice it is in there. Don’t use dark cocoa as it is more bitter. Please don’t omit unless you have to!
A Few More Ways to Fix Acidic Marinara Sauce
- Sweeter wine will yield a sweeter sauce. Not like a dessert wine, but not a sour one either. Something you enjoy drinking.
- Stir in some sugar. Sugar doesn’t reduce acidity, but it does help mask it.
- Add some Baking Soda. Baking soda is an acid neutralizer, and works very well (I drink it mixed with water when I have an acid attack in my tummy). When adding it to your sauce, start with 1/4 tsp and sprinkle it on the sauce. You will see it get fizzy. Just let it do that and then stir it. Taste, and add another 1/4 tsp if necessary. Be careful not to add too much as baking soda is bitter tasting.
- Add some salt. Adding some extra salt sometimes does the trick, however you need to be really careful not to add too much. I have only used salt once for this, and that was because I added too much sugar.
- Toss in a sliced carrot before cooking. My reader Cara learned that from an Italian neighbor she had (thanks, Cara!)!
You Might Also Like These Recipes that Use this pressure cooker Fresh Marinara Tomato Sauce
Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
Instant Pot Lasagna
Instant Pot Pizza Pasta Casserole
Instant Pot Meatball Pasta Dinner
If you make this wonderful pressure cooker marinara sauce, please leave me a comment below. I’d love to know how you liked it!
Add Only if the Sauce is too Acidic (After Pressure Cooking)
Before you begin the cooking process, have all of your veggies chopped & ingredients measured and ready to go.
Turn on the Sauté setting. When the pot is Hot, add the olive oil. Don't add the oil to a cold pot. Then add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until turning translucent.
Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds.
Add the chopped tomatoes and stir.
Add the red wine, salt, pepper, cocoa powder, basil, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, oregano, and parsley flakes. Stir well to combine.
Add the tomato paste, but do not stir it in. Leave it sitting on top. If you stir it in it will be too thick and the pot may scorch and not come to pressure.Also, you will not have to add any additional liquid as the red wine and juice from the tomatoes is plenty to get the pot to pressure. Close the lid and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Then press the Pressure Cook (or Manual) button or dial to select 25 minutes (You can cook less time, but I tested and liked this time best).
After the cook cycle is finished, turn the pot off so it doesn't go to the Warm setting. Then leave it to Naturally Release the pressure until the pin in the lid drops down. Then open the lid and give the sauce a stir. Careful of the hot sauce splattering, so stir slowly!
Taste, and if the sauce is too acidic, either add the sugar, or add the baking soda. Stir it in and let it sit a while. Then taste and adjust as necessary.
Let the sauce cool, then use an immersion blender, food processor, or blender to puree it nice and smooth. It is best to do this when the sauce has cooled.
Transfer the sauce to jars with lids and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can freeze it as well.
*Don't bother peeling the tomatoes. The skin cooks down and the immersion blender or food processor takes care of it. You won't even notice!
**If your tomatoes are not very juicy, add ½ cup of water when you add them to the pot. This will help the pot come to pressure easier. You can use the sauté setting to cook off extra water after pressure cooking if the sauce is too thin.
Canning: If you want to can this sauce, please look up how to adjust for canning as you will need to add citric acid or lemon juice, etc. Note that the Instant Pot® is not for canning. Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Thank you for this–I’ve been looking for a real marinara sauce recipe with some body and complexity. The other “simple” recipes taste like pureed tomatoes and basil. I didn’t have so many leftover garden tomatoes at this point, so put in a couple of cans of tomatoes, and I stirred in the tomato paste before reading carefully. It still tastes rich, like a gourmet marinara that I can use on pasta, lasagna, vegetables or meat. Thank you!
Hi Desi! You are very welcome. I was also needing a more complex, flavorful sauce. I’m so glad this worked for you! Thank you for your review!
This is so good. I follwed recipe exactly. Used up lots of tomatoes out of the garden. The consistency is perfect, really clings to the pasta , and so easy to make. Thanks !!
Hi Sue, I am so happy to know that you liked this marinara sauce recipe! I can’t wait until next year so I can grow another crop of tomatoes! Thank you for your review!
This sauce is amazing and my family loves it. I have made it twice this month and will continue to make it yearly with my garden tomatoes. I really enjoyed the tips & tricks you provided in your recipe like not stirring in the tomato paste and using cocoa to cut the acidity. I can tell you are a great cook by the quality and details of this recipe. Thank you so much!!
So glad to know that! I’m glad you and your family liked it! Thank you for the review!
Hi, I am wondering about adding other veggies into the sauce. Carrots, celery, mushrooms, spinach, you get the idea. Would that work with this recipe? What kind of changes might I need to make?
You can just add in the veggies you like. Since it will be blended at the end, no texture concerns.
I’m thinking about the tomato seeds… does the immersion blender just blend them all up? Seems like it will be full of yellow and brown specks and be grainy.
When I first tested this recipe I just mashed the tomatoes and it wasn’t as good/thick as with the immersion blender. I have been eating this sauce for weeks and haven’t even noticed any seeds, lol! Not grainy at all!
Sandy, do you have any sub suggestions for the red wine, as I don’t have any in house? I’ll be making a smaller batch with ~3lbs of tomatoes. Would a little bit of red wine vinegar or balsamic add some of that red wine flavour depth…or just make it too acidic? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. My tomatoes are begging to be in this sauce 😁
I think just leaving it out would be fine.
I was wondering the same. Hope we get an answer.
Kim, just do it seeds and all. I use the immersion blender and have never even noticed the seeds.
Hmm, mine came out really thin and quite bitter. It took a bit of adjusting (thanks for the info on how) and my husband just doused it with cheese and ate it anyway, so I’ll still rate it a 4. Would you recommend removing any water/moisture for certain types of tomatoes? (I would love to tell you exactly what kind I have, but they are all from a free plant he got at the hardware store… large, round, and red…)
Hi Kate. Well, ripe, sweet tomatoes make the best sauce. Another way to sweeten them is to cut them in half and coat with olive oil and a little salt, and roasting on a baking pan 400° for about 45 minutes before making the sauce. Using an immersion blender helps it become thick, or if your tomatoes have that much water, add another 1/2 cup (small can) of tomato paste and sauté on Low to cook the raw taste out of the paste. For the flavor you can add some fresh rosemary leaves and fresh basil leaves (about 1/2 to 1 cup packed). Basil is sweet and adds a great flavor.
I made this yesterday and it was incredible! So flavorful and rich– you’d almost think it was a meat sauce. Or at the very least think that the tomatoes were roasted. All that flavor and it was so so easy. I realized we had drunk all of our red wine, so I used half Marsala and half Chardonnay and it was still divine. I used a food mill to get out all the seeds and skins, so it ended up pretty watery, and I was still surprised by HOW MUCH flavor it still had! This is my new favorite summer tomato marinara recipe. Bravo!
Hi Justine! I’m so very happy that you liked this marinara sauce recipe! I worked hard to create a sauce that would be very easy to make, and have good flavor. I appreciate you taking the time to leave a review!
Made this today with the tomatoes from our garden and it is delicious! So quick and easy. I will be making another batch tomorrow to freeze. Thank You for sharing your recipes!
I’m so glad you like it, Barb! I made another batch today, too! Then we had spaghetti and meatballs. I am so glad I froze some of this because it is so much better than store bought! I think I have enough tomatoes for one more batch! Thank you for leaving your review!
The cocoa powder, is it unsweetened? I’m doing the low carb thing and am trying to stay away from sugar.
Yes, unsweetened.
I have never heard of cocoa in a tomato sauce recipe? But I’m willing to try! My Roma tomatoes are coming in, I can my Roma Tomatoes for sauces, nothing better than using fresh vegies from my own garden! All organic no preservatives!
Hi Sandy,
Is there anything I can substitute in place of the red wine?
Thanks
Unsweetened Grape Juice, Cranberry Juice, or Pomegranate Juice work very well. Just make sure there is no sugar added. You can add sugar after the sauce cooks, if necessary.
Could you use broth or stock instead of red wine or any of the other listed substitutes?
You can use water, tomato juice, or white grape juice.