This Instant Pot Marinara Sauce cooks in about 30 minutes but has the flavor of a sauce that has been simmered for hours.
Marinara sauce tastes best when it’s been simmered for hours thanks to the maillard reaction, which is a chemical reaction that your food undergoes when it’s browned – it gives food a much more complex flavor.
By putting this marinara sauce in the instant pot, we speed up this process and get a much more flavorful sauce. To deepen the sauce, I also added shredded carrots for a pop of sweetness and nutrition as well as red wine, which also makes the flavor more complex.
Ingredients for Instant Pot Marinara Sauce
Olive oil: We need just a bit of oil to saute the veggies in the sauce. I have also used butter, which tastes great too.
Onion: If you plan on keeping your sauce chunky, I would chop the onion fairly finely. If you like a smooth, pureed sauce as I do, you can keep the chunks fairly big and rough since it’ll all get blended up in the end.
Carrots: You can shred your own if you want, but I prefer just to buy pre-shredded carrots. Plus, I always have some on hand to throw in stir-fries and salads.
Garlic: I’m crazy about some garlic, so I like at least four cloves of garlic but feel free to adjust it as needed.
Herbs: I used dried oregano and red pepper flake but used fresh basil because I love the fresh basil’s flavor so much more than the dried. You can sub in some dried basil if that’s what you have – I think 2 tsp. would be enough.
Red wine: I used a merlot that I got from Winc, and it was perfect. You can also check out my guide to Wine Pairings with Italian Food.
Crushed tomatoes: There are lots of crushed canned tomatoes out there, but I recommend San Marzano canned tomatoes – they have the best flavor.
How to Make Marinara Sauce in the Instant Pot
To make this marinara sauce, you’ll need first to saute the onion and shredded carrots with olive oil in the Instant Pot using the sauté function. You’ll then add the garlic, herbs, red pepper flake (if using), and basil, followed by the red wine.
Let the red wine reduce for a few minutes to let some of the alcohol burn off.
After, you’ll add the crushed tomatoes and season generously with salt and pepper. Put the lid on and make sure that the steam valve is in the closed position.
You can then switch the function from saute to manual high pressure and set the timer for 25 minutes. You can use a manual steam release. If you want a smooth sauce, puree the sauce with a blender. Otherwise, you can leave it chunky.
How Long Does Marinara Sauce Last? Can Marinara Sauce Be Frozen?
You can keep the marinara sauce in the fridge for 3-4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped roughly
- 1 cup of shredded carrots
- 3-4 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- ⅛ tsp. of red pepper flake optional
- 3-4 large fresh basil leaves plus extra for garnish
- ½ cup of red wine
- 28 oz. of crushed canned San Marzano tomatoes
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Put Instant Pot on the saute feature and add olive oil to the pot. Add onion and shredded carrots and saute for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add garlic, oregano, red pepper flake (if using), and fresh basil leaves and saute for about 30 seconds to 1 minute or until fragrant.
- Add red wine and simmer for about 2-3 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and stir to incorporate ingredients fully.
- Put on the Instant Pot lid and make sure that the steam valve is in the closed position. Switch the function to manual high pressure and cook for 25 minutes. Manually release steam. If you prefer a smooth sauce, blend using a blender or you can leave it chunky.
Jaci
This was just not good. I’m currently pressure cooking it again with some modifications in hopes that I can turn my bland, watery mess into something edible.
Melissa
Hi Jaci – I’m sorry that the recipe did not turn out for you 🙁 I will definitely be taking another look at the recipe to see if or how I need to re-work it.
While I, of course, don’t know for sure what went wrong, I thought I might share how to possibly fix it:
-After blending, if the sauce is watery, I would switch the Instant Pot to the saute feature again to allow the water to boil off and concentrate the flavors. Keep a close eye on it and stir often as the saute feature does not have a temperature control and it could scorch. You can also pour it into a stock pot on the stove, if you want control over the temp.
Thank you for the feedback, and again, I’ll re-evaluate the recipe 🙂