Instant Pot Marinara

Looking for amazing marinara sauce that doesn’t need to cook all day long? Try this easy pressure cooker marinara sauce! So fast and so delicious.

While store-bought marinara sauce may not cost a ton of money to buy, homemade always tastes better! With this instant pot marinara sauce, you can have a tasty homemade dinner in no time. Perfect for when you want to impress your dinner guests or simply try something new.

Making a marinara sauce from scratch isn’t as hard as you may think. One of the biggest differences between marinara sauce and spaghetti sauce is that marinara uses fresher ingredients and is faster to prepare!

This quick marinara sauce uses canned tomato paste and crushed tomatoes to help give it a good thick and chunky base. The fresh onion and seasonings are what help to give it the unique and wonderful flavor profile. A simple marinara sauce doesn’t require much to make it amazing.

How to make this instant pot marinara sauce

Using your Instant Pot’s sauteing mode, heat your olive oil until it’s good and sizzling. Then toss in the onion and seasonings, cooking them until the onions are soft. Continue to stir so that all of the onions can get evenly cooked.

Then add in the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. Stirring until combined. 

Place your Instant Pot lid on and place the vent in the sealing position. Turn on the manual high pressure and cook for 1 minute- yes- 1 minute! Then let your Instant Pot naturally release the pressure. 

I told you this was a fast instant pot marinara sauce!

So now that you know how quick and easy it is to make your own marinara sauce, you’ll probably want a few reasons to make it as soon as possible. 

So here’s a list of things that would pair well with this homemade marinara sauce.

• Pasta (of course!)
  • Raviolis, spaghetti, elbow macaroni, cavatappi, the list goes on!
• A slow-cooked beef roast
  • Just pour the sauce in with your roast and set it to low for 8 hours. Now you have a hearty Italian flavored roast!
• Meatballs and marinara 
  • Tastes great as a sub sandwich or over pasta
• Pizza!
  • Yes, it’s not “technically” pizza sauce, but it still works great in place of pizza sauce when you’re making your own.
• Parmesan 
  • Chicken, fish, eggplant, etc. there really is no limit here.

What about the leftover marinara sauce that you won’t be using? What can you do with that?

Ideas for the leftover marinara sauce:

• Chili
  • Chili is mainly tomato-based, so adding in your extra marinara sauce won’t change anything except give you a better flavor and help to add more portions to the meal.
• Tomato soup
  • You can find plenty of tomato soup recipes, but pureeing your leftover marinara sauce and adding it to your soup can take it to a whole new level.
• Dips and sauces
  • Homemade mozzarella sticks, pita bread, etc.

Another great idea:

With kids taking school lunches, this is a prime opportunity! Think about getting some condiment containers and filling with marinara. Now when you send the kids to school with lunch, you can give them small amounts.

Perfect for DIY Lunchable pizzas and pasta. Or you can premake cheesy bread at home, and send them to lunch with the marinara for pizza dippers! Your kids will think they hit the jackpot at lunchtime.

Looking for more great pasta recipes!

• Slow Cooker Marinara
• Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Pasta
• Sausage Pasta Bake
• Quick Alfredo Pasta Recipe
• Cheesy Alfredo Pasta Bake
• Homemade Chicken Alfredo Recipe
• Chicken Alfredo Stuffed Shells
• Easy Homemade Alfredo Sauce
• Creamy Tuscan Chicken
• Pasta Primavera
• Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce
• Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells