This easy Instant Pot Pasta Sauce has a deep, rich, all day simmered flavor, but takes just 25 minutes in your pressure cooker. Loaded with veggies, this healthy tomato sauce is vegetarian and easily made vegan. Perfect for spaghetti, lasagna, and other pasta dishes.
Bonkers good pasta sauce
For the longest time, I couldn't understand the appeal of making homemade pasta sauce. But then I tasted my friend's Italian nonna's all-day simmered tomato sauce, and I wanted some privacy with it—it was that good.
I don't have an Italian nonna, and I don't have the patience to simmer things all day long. You know what I DO have? An Instant Pot! And it turns out that layering in the right flavors and pressure cooking the heck out of it will give you that same all-day taste in just a fraction of the time.
And that, my friends, is why we're here today. This Instant Pot Pasta Sauce is a game changer. It's made with simple, everyday ingredients, lots of love, and the magic of pressure cooking all those flavors together in a perfectly delicious way. Trust me, with a batch of this stuff in on hand in your freezer, you won't be going back to the canned stuff anytime soon.
Spoon it on top of spaghetti or use it to make a cheesy Vegetarian Ravioli Bake. Use it to make a delicious veggie-packed Kale Lasagna. Mmmmm. Or how about Vegetarian Baked Ziti? So, so good.
Let's make Instant Pot Pasta Sauce together!
Step 1: sauté
Turn your Instant Pot to the sauté setting on normal heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, and add the onions. Sauté for a couple of minutes until they start to turn translucent.
Add the carrots, celery, and garlic, and sauté for another 3-5 minutes until the vegetables are softened and just starting to take on a golden hue. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pot well.
Step 2: cook the sauce
Cancel the sauté function. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, butter, red wine, honey, herbs, and salt and pepper.
Place the lid on your Instant Pot, seal, and set to "pressure cook, high" for 25 minutes. Make sure the vent is sealed. It will take about 10-15 minutes for the Instant Pot to come up to pressure.
Step 3: release the pressure
Once the pressure cooking cycle is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes, and then quick release the remaining pressure.
Voila! Your pasta sauce is ready.
If you prefer a super smooth pasta sauce (parents of picky eaters, I see you) you can always run it through a food mill or purée with an immersion blender at this stage. Be sure to remove the bay leaf first!
Instant Pot Pasta Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large onion diced
- 1 cup diced carrot
- 1 cup diced celery
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 3 cans crushed tomatoes three 14oz / 400g cans
- 4 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup dry red wine or vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoon butter or olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
- 3 small bay leaves
- 2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup vegetable broth or water I rinse out the tomato cans and use this as the extra liquid
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to the sauté setting on "normal" heat.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and add the diced onion. Sauté for 2-3 minutes, until just translucent.1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 large onion
- Add the garlic, carrots, and celery, and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are starting to soften and just take on a golden hue.1 cup diced carrot, 3 cloves garlic, 1 cup diced celery
- Add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, butter, honey, oregano, basil, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and extra liquid.3 cloves garlic, 3 cans crushed tomatoes, 4 tablespoon tomato paste, ½ cup dry red wine, 2 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon honey, 3 small bay leaves, 2 teaspoon dried oregano, 2 teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon sea salt, ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 cup vegetable broth or water
- Seal the lid, and set to manual pressure cooking on high pressure for 25 minutes. It will take about 15 minutes to come up to pressure.
- When the pressure cooking cycle is complete, allow the pressure to release naturally for 15 minutes, and then quick release the remaining pressure.
- Remove the bay leave, stir the pasta sauce, and purée if desired.
Notes
- Nutrition values are an estimate only.
- Pasta sauce can be frozen once completely cooled in glass jars (be sure to leave adequate head space) or silicon freezer bags.
- To make vegan pasta sauce, replace the butter with olive oil and the honey with sugar. Be sure to use a vegan wine.
- You can replace the red wine with vegetable broth if you don't want to cook with wine.
Victoria Mitchell says
Just had this (guess where? 😉). Soo good! I’m adding it to my regular recipe rotation.
Julia says
I doubled recipe for big extended family dinner, deglazed the pot but got a burn signal. Bottom of pot black... so disappointed.
Katie Trant says
Hey Julia, that's such a bummer! I have never had a burn signal while making this recipe, but I've also never doubled it. Instant Pots can be finicky though... I've attempted to make a fellow food blogger's Instant Pot Mexican Rice recipe several times, and my pot burns every single time. She's never had it happen when making it herself using three different Instant Pots, yet I get the burn every time. So frustrating, and I'm sorry that the recipe didn't work out for you.
nana says
same thing happened to me even though the bottom was thoroughly deglaze before turning on the pressure.
Katie Trant says
Such a bummer! Tomato-based recipes can sometimes be tricky in the Instant Pot.
Jaime says
I can't wait to try this along with your kale lasagna this weekend. In an 8 qt instant pot would it be feasible to double the recipe in your opinion?
Katie Trant says
Hi Jamie, to be honest I'm not sure about doubling this recipe. I have a 6qt Instant Pot, and when I make it the pot is quite full... so it kind of depends on where your fill line is in an 8qt, which is impossible to know unless you try it! If you do give it a go, please be sure to let us know how it turns out!
Jaime Houskeeper says
It did fit! And the recipe (as well as the kale lasagna) is delicious!!
Katie Trant says
Good to know!!!
Emily says
Made a big batch of the sauce this weekend and we loved it. I didn't have red pepper flakes, so I substituted a small amount of chilli flakes which made it too spicy for my little kids, but the rest of us loved it.
Pär says
A delicious and nutricious pasta sauce! I made it for use in Katie's kale lasagna recipe (https://www.heynutritionlady.com/kale-lasagna-with-cottage-cheese/), which was amazing, but will now start making it just as a pasta sauce as well.
I don't have an Instant Pot, but the recipe works just as well in a dutch oven. I gave it about 1.5-2 hours of simmering time until the celery started turning soft, first with the lid off for about 1 hour to reduce the sauce, and then with the lid on.
If you have an oven-proof dutch oven, you can let the sauce simmer in the oven at about 175°C (350°F) without and then with the lid on, for about the same time or longer. It's pretty convenient and doesn't require much attention. Just make sure there's enough liquid left to prevent the sauce from becoming to dry or burning.
Heather says
This is a delicious pasta sauce. I really appreciate how you have inserted the ingredient measurements in along with the method!
Allison says
I love having some of this sauce frozen instead of buying jars of marinara. So easy to put together
Doug Baker says
Super simple and tastes great...but: my Instant Pot gave me a 'burn notice' (?) after I stopped the saute function and started the pressure cooking. I had to stop, scrape, and start again. I suggest it might be a good idea to do a really good scrape and mix of the ingredients after the saute step.
Katie Trant says
I've had that happen a few times with recipes that are a bit on the thicker side, including my red lentil stew. Haven't had it happen with this recipe before, and I think it may vary from IP to IP (some tend to cook hotter than others).