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    Home » Recipes » Pressure cooker

    Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce

    Published: Nov 13, 2018 by Mike Vrobel · This post may contain affiliate links · 5 Comments

    Jump to Recipe
    Tomato sauce on top of spaghetti, with a sprig of basil, on a red plate, above text saying Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce
    Tomato sauce over spaghetti noodles, with a piece of basil, on a red plate, with text Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce below it

    Marcella Hazan's three-ingredient tomato sauce is famous, and rightfully so. Butter, onion, and canned whole tomatoes make a simple, yet fantastic sauce. Let's try it in a pressure cooker with Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce.

    The only tricky part of this recipe was getting the timing down. 30 minutes under pressure is the Goldilocks zone: a balance of breaking down the tomatoes into a sauce without overcooking and losing the bright, tomato flavor.

    Marcella recommends Italian San Marzano DOP tomatoes, which are fantastic…and expensive. I get good results with American brands of canned plum tomatoes, which are less than half the price of San Marzano tomatoes. (I usually go with American canned tomatoes.) The big difference between Italian and American canned tomatoes was the amount of salt in the can. Italian tomatoes don’t have salt; they need some, or the sauce comes out tasting a little flat.

    Looking for a simple tomato sauce that replaces hours of simmering with 30 minutes of pressure? Try this one out. Thanks, Marcella!

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    Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce


    • Author: Mike Vrobel
    • Total Time: 50 minutes
    • Yield: Sauce to cover 1 pound of pasta
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    Description

    Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce. The famous sauce from Marcella's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, adapted to work in a pressure cooker.


    Ingredients

    Scale
    • 4 tablespoons butter
    • 1 medium onion, peeled and halved
    • 2 (28-ounce) cans San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes (or plum tomatoes), crushed by hand, with juices
    • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt (If using Italian tomatoes - American canned tomatoes have extra sodium and don’t need more)

    Instructions

    1. Melt the butter, crush the tomatoes, everything in the pot: Set the Instant Pot for Sauté mode (medium heat in a stovetop PC) and add the butter to the pot, and then the onion halves, cut side down. When the butter stops foaming, pour in the hand-crushed tomatoes. (Sprinkle with the fine sea salt if they are Italian canned tomatoes, otherwise, hold the salt.)
    2. Pressure cook for 30 minutes with a natural pressure release: Pressure cook on high pressure for 30 minutes in an Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker ("Manual" or "Pressure Cook" mode), or for 24 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. Let the pressure come down naturally, about 15 minutes.
    3. Discard the onion and serve: Discard the onion, give the sauce a vigorous stir to break up the tomatoes, and serve.

    Notes

    • This recipe makes enough sauce to cover a pound of pasta
    • Chunky vs. smooth sauce: This is a chunky sauce - hand-crushing the tomatoes only goes so far. If you want a smooth sauce, use a stick blender to puree the tomatoes in the pot after cooking.
    • Extras: The beauty of this sauce is in its simplicity. And...I can't help myself. I mess with it. Marcella tosses everything in the pot; I melt the butter and brown the onions a little before adding the tomatoes. I will add a teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning or dried basil, or maybe mince fresh basil and sprinkle it over the sauce right before serving; Marcella uses her sauce straight up.

    Tools

    • 6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
    • Prep Time: 5 minutes
    • Cook Time: 45 minutes
    • Category: Weeknight Dinner
    • Method: Pressure Cooker
    • Cuisine: Italian

    Keywords: Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce, Pressure Cooker Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce

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    What do you think?

    Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Carmen says

      November 19, 2019 at 6:20 pm

      Hi! Do you think this would work with fresh plum tomatoes?

      Reply
      • Mike Vrobel says

        November 20, 2019 at 8:43 am

        No, sorry, it won’t work.

        Reply
    2. Beth says

      November 25, 2018 at 1:08 am

      We love her recipe, so glad you adapted it for the pressure cooker! Will have to try it out soon!

      Reply
    3. pat r says

      November 13, 2018 at 10:03 am

      Curios if you had any issues with scorching? The few times I tried tomato sauce in the IP I had some burning issues

      Reply
      • Mike Vrobel says

        November 14, 2018 at 12:22 pm

        No. I was worried about that too, but no scorching with this one.

        Reply

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    Welcome to Dad Cooks Dinner! I'm Mike Vrobel, a dad who cooks dinner every night. I'm an enthusiastic home cook, and I write about pressure cooking, rotisserie grilling, and other food topics that grab my attention.

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