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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I love this recipe! I also like using this as my base recipe and adding in olives, mushrooms, zucchini, fresh basil….whatever I have on hand. Delicious!
This marinara sauce is simply delicious! I was thrilled to put to use all the different tomatoes from the garden at once. I used balsamic vinegar instead of red wine which was delicious and I halved all the ingredients and it worked out perfectly.
Oh my word, this is great! Yesterday I stopped at a local farm produce stand and lucked onto a 15 pound box of imperfect home grown tomatoes for $10. I made a triple batch of your sauce and it is amazing! I portioned it up in ziploc bags and it’s going in the freezer. Thank you so much for this recipe. I didn’t change a thing and it’s so darn good. We will be having some amazing pasta and sauce for months to come.
I’ll join the chorus of people like this recipe a lot. I’ve used a stovetop pressure cooker for over 50 years, and just purchased an automatic electric one this week. given that it is the peak of the tomato crop in a good year, making marinara sauce was an obvious way to try out my new toy. I used your recipe as my pattern; I added a bit of carrot and celery, and I had fresh parsley and basil that I could use instead of the dried. It smelled wonderful and has very good flavor; I have Frozen it in 1 quart containers with a thin film of olive oil on the top to guard against freezer burn. I got three and a half quarts of sauce from 5 lb of tomatoes; I expect to have enough tomatoes to do at least one and perhaps two more batches; I look forward to enjoying the brighter flavor of this sauce (as compared with grocery store brands) when I prepare a pasta dish in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter! I look forward to trying more of your recipes, and have already recommended this one to some Facebook friends.
This is a fantastic recipe for marinara sauce – I have made about 20 batches (4-5 pints each) over the past three summers when tomatoes are plentiful from the garden and farm markets, freezing most of it to use later for all my “red sauce” dishes from eggplant parm, to spaghetti to braciole – you name it. It’s great as is but I’ve tweaked it a little based on our preference and ingredients I have on hand. Here are my modifications, in case anyone wants to try any or all: Omit the wine and cocoa powder; add a little fennel seed; use fresh parsley and basil; rather than add sugar to cut the acidity, I use one carrot, shredded and sauteed with the onion – it blends up nice and smooth with the rest of the ingredients; I’ve played with the amount of canned tomato paste and found that if I use meaty plum tomatoes, one small can will result in sauce that is thick enough. Thank you for sharing this recipe – it’s a real winner!
Made last week with my grandson. It was easy and very tasty and thick.
Last Sat I spent over 4 hrs making sauces from my fresh tomatoes and used almost all of my pots and pans. Let’s just say I was not looking forward to doing that again with yesterday’s harvest! I found your recipe and will not use any other! All I needed was a knife, cutting board , immersion blender and the instant pot. The ingredients made the sauce rich, silky and thick! I did throw in a carrot and a green pepper, but other than followed it exactly. My husband loves it! We’ll be enjoying the sauces all winter long! Thank you!,,
I just opened up my instant pot. I’m waiting for the sauce to cool so I can blend it, but I had to take a taste because it smells so good. It is absolutely delicious! It’s rich, and perfectly spiced, although I’m not sure if it’s a little too salty. I’ll have to wait and see when it cools, but either way, this recipe is a winner. Thanks for the recipe.
I absolutely love this recipe. It is so easy and tastes great. I used baking soda at the end each time for acidity and worked like a charm. Thank you for the great recipe. I made 9 batches using fresh tomatoes and froze the marinara.
This recipe worked exceptionally well as a guide. We are very happy with the sauce we were able to create. Thank you!