Before I owned an Instant Pot I made sauce exactly one time. It was bland and not at all exciting. So for the next however many years I ate bottled sauce from the supermarket. I don’t really care for bottled sauce though as it’s too salty and just not pleasing to my palate.
Once I got the Instant Pot I came across some recipes for sauce and tried them but they didn’t quite cut it either. I don’t care for it with red wine as an ingredient and many of them had red wine. The others were bland or too salty or not “Italian” enough tasing for me, so I set about creating my own sauce recipe.
I make this recipe once a week or once every other week and use it in all of my other recipes that call for sauce like the Lasagna. It’s really delicious and easily customizable to your particular tastes. From the meat you choose, if any, as this recipe works great as a marinara also, to the amount of spices, to whether or not you choose to put in wine … you can make this recipe your own. It also freezes great!
I think that knowing exactly what ingredients go into your recipes and how much of them is really important.
Instant Pot Pasta Sauce
Nutrition per portion
Ingredients
- 1 lb Italian Sausage (or the meat of your choice)
- 1 Large Onion
- 6 Cloves of Garlic or 2 TBSP Crushed Garlic
- 1 Cup of Broth (I use Chicken or Better than Bullion)
- 2 28 oz cans of Crushed Tomatoes
- 3 TBSP Tomato Paste
- 2 TBSP Italian Seasoning
- 2 TBSP Dried Oregano
- 2 TBSP Dried Basil
- 2 TBSP Garlic Powder
- 1/2 TBSP Pepper
- 1 TBSP of Brown Sugar
- 2 Bay Leaves
Method
Make your spice mix. Set aside.- 2 TBSP Italian Seasoning
- 2 TBSP Dried Oregano
- 2 TBSP Dried Basil
- 2 TBSP Garlic Powder
- 2 TBSP of Brown Sugar
- 1/2 TBSP Pepper to taste.
Set the Instant Pot to Sauté:
- Brown your meat - stirring frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom.
- When the meat is brown add the onions
- Let sauté about 3 minutes (until onions are translucent)
- Add the Garlic Cloves
- Let sauté another minute.
- Add your broth and deglaze the bottom. (make sure nothing is stuck)
- Add crushed tomatoes.
- Add tomato paste.
- Add your spice mix that you made earlier.
- Add Bay Leaves
- Hit cancel.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot.
- Make sure it is set to sealing.
- Cook on High Pressure for 9 minutes.
- Watch for the IP to say burn. If this happens release any pressure. Open IP and scrape the bottom.
- Restart the IP and let it cook.
- Let it NR for 15 minutes
- QR rest of the pressure.
- Ready to eat.
You can use any meat of your choice in this recipe. I prefer sausage but I have used 1/2 lb beef and 1/2 lb pork as well as 1 lb beef and it comes out delicious with whatever you choose to use.
