Can You Pressure Cook Garden Tomatoes With The Seeds

Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce in a black bowl with Instant Pot and basket of tomatoes in background

Want to make an easy Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce with fresh tomatoes?

While I love my Quick and Easy Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce, I also enjoy making a sauce that takes longer with fresh plum tomatoes such as San Marzano tomatoes. Normally I'll simmer it for hours on the stove after having spent a lot of time peeling, coring and seeding the tomatoes first. After buying a 15 pound box of San Marzanos recently (because I didn't grow enough), I decided this was the year to figure out how to make my homemade sauce in the Instant Pot. I had a few things in mind before creating the recipe.

Here was my criteria for my new sauce:

I didn't want to peel, core or seed the tomatoes. While it's an extraordinary taste, it takes a lot of time and I feel like I'm wasting most of the tomato, very little is left after you do all of that and you need lots of tomatoes.
I really wanted to do it in the Instant Pot as I didn't want to stir it all day.
This sauce needed to have great flavor without a ton of calories. I wanted a healthy tomato sauce free of added sugar and not a lot of oil.

I believe my Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce fits all 3 of my criteria. I used sweet onions and baby carrots instead of sugar. I used fresh herbs, garlic, plum tomatoes and a parmesan rind to add flavor. See what you think! It really doesn't take much prep time, most of the time is spent pressure cooking, then simmering. You do need an Instant Pot and an immersion blender (paid link) is super helpful. If you don't have one, this might be the recipe that changes your mind. Here's the link to my immersion blender which I've had for years.

How do you make this sauce and how can you use this sauce?

I hope you like my Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce. I make several batches and freeze them in 2 cup portions in vacuum sealed packages. When I need tomato sauce, I microwave it just until slightly thawed then add it to my pot. This sauce is a basic sauce, meaning you can add your own spices and season it the way you want in your dishes. It's great in lasagnas, spaghetti sauce, over vegetables and pasta. Thicken it up with some tomato paste and you'll have a great pizza sauce as well. It's very versatile!

(This post does contain affiliate links which means that if you click on them and/or buy something I may earn a small commission -at no extra cost to you. I only recommend the things I actually use in my kitchen. By clicking and buying these items, you help keep my recipe blog running. Thank you!)

Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce- No Peeling, Coring or Seeding!

Easy, delicious, healthy homemade tomato sauce made with fresh San Marzano tomatoes right in your Instant Pot. No peeling, coring or seeding required. Freeze it in packages for later use for spaghetti, lasagna, and pasta.

Weight Watchers Points: 2 Freestyle Smart Points per cup

Prep Time 30 mins

Cook Time 2 hrs

Total Time 2 hrs 30 mins

Servings 10 cups

Calories 137 kcal

6 lbs San Marzano tomatoes Roma or any other plum tomato, rinsed
4 T. olive oil use a good brand
10 garlic cloves minced
3 large sweet onions sliced and roughly chopped (Maui, Vidalia, Bermuda, Walla Walla, Sweet Imperial)
1 c. baby carrots roughly chopped
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. fresh basil finely chopped
1/3 c. fresh parsley finely chopped
1/3 c. fresh oregano finely chopped
1/2 c. red wine Cabernet works well
1 T. kosher salt
1 parmesan rind about a 2 oz piece See note at bottom of recipe.

Press the "Saute," button on your Instant Pot and heat. Make sure to press the "adjust" button and set "saute" on the highest setting. Later in the recipe, you'll switch it to low but for now, the highest setting is needed.
When hot, add the olive oil.
Add onions and saute until softened and slightly brown about 10 minutes.
Add carrots and garlic to the pot and saute a few more minutes. Be careful not to burn garlic, otherwise it will be bitter.
Add water and whole tomatoes. If you have a 6 qt Instant Pot, you'll probably need to cut up a few of your tomatoes so they all fit in the pot. If you have an 8 qt, you should be fine. Mix the onions and tomatoes as best you can.
Cover with lid. Press, "Manual,"(or Pressure cook on some models) and make sure it's on high pressure. Set time to 20 minutes. If your pressure cooker won't pressurize, add another 1/2 c. water. Usually there's enough liquid with the 1/2 c. water, tomatoes and onions to pressurize but if not, add a bit more.
When finished, do a quick release (or natural is fine too), add basil, parsley, oregano, red wine, and salt. Use an immersion blender to blend all of the ingredients into a nice, smooth sauce. (If you don't have one, carefully (it's hot!) put the tomatoes into a food processor in batches and process until smooth. Add mixture back into the Instant Pot.)
Add the parmesan rind. Push the "Saute," button, then adjust it to the lowest setting. Simmer for about an hour (lid off), stirring occasionally, try not to let it boil. Taste, then adjust spices as needed- (You can also do this last part of simmering in a big pot on the stove as well). Remove rind.
Cool ( I let mine sit overnight in the refrigerator), then pack 1-2 cups of sauce into vacuum sealed bags or Ziplock bags.

Many times you can find just the parmesan rinds at the grocery store. Just ask at the deli and cheese counter. Otherwise buy a small piece of parmesan and cut off the rind yourself. An immersion blender is pretty critical in this recipe. You can cut the hot tomatoes and onions right in the Instant Pot without making a mess in the food processor. I tried using dried oregano but it seems all wrong in this recipe. I really like the taste of fresh herbs. If you do use dried, go easy, a little at a time and taste in between additions.

Calories: 137 kcal Carbohydrates: 16.8 g Protein: 3.7 g Fat: 6.5 g Saturated Fat: 1.1 g Cholesterol: 0.7 mg Sodium: 735.4 mg Fiber: 4.4 g Sugar: 9.4 g Vitamin A: 171.3 IU Vitamin C: 45.3 mg

Keyword Instant Pot Homemade Tomato Sauce

Let us know how it was!

Amy Lawrence

Amy Lawrence is passionate about good food, losing and maintaining weight. She has combined her talents and love of cooking to produce delicious healthy recipes to help her followers stay on track. A military brat who has lived all over the U.S and Germany is an example for women who have had many successful careers in life, including special ed teacher, tea room owner, cookbook author, and publisher.