This multi-pot tomato sauce recipe might be a little early for those thinking they’ll get a multi-cooker or Instant Pot for Christmas, but if you’ve got one of those from last year, or have a pressure cooker or slow-cooker (come on, you probably have a pot if you’re reading this), then amazing tomato sauce is within your culinary capabilities.
Quarantine Cooking Free Cookbook
I wrote this recipe for my PWYC cookbook, Quarantine Cooking, a fundraiser for the Montreal Restaurant Workers’ Relief Fund back in April and have re-written it here for all as a sneak peak of what you can expect if you download that book. There’s a whole section on multi-pot, slow-cookers and pressure cookers with recipes including risotto and spiced Caribbean chicken. You can still get that cookbook for $0 or as many dollars as you’d like and your money will still go to the MRWRF.
I’m also re-writing this recipe here because my brother and his wife just got their a multi-cooker and have been having fun making pulled pork, risotto and short ribs. Their lives are immeasurably changed for the better, I’m told. I hope this, too, will help. My little early/late wedding gift. Covid. Happy marriage and happy cooking to them.
Ultimate Pantry Tomato Sauce (Multi Cooker/Instant Pot, Slow-Cooker, Pressure Cooker or Stove-Top)
The true ultimate tomato sauce is made with summer-fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, but this one with whole canned tomatoes is probably the ultimate pantry tomato sauce, depending on the quality of your canned beauties. Fun fact: most canned tomatoes are canned at peak ripeness soon after bing picked, so if they were ripe and high quality when they were picked, they're probably going to be tastier than your out-of-season, imported ones, like those December ones picked weeks too early in Mexico and shipped to Canadian grocery stores.
Stove-top version: You can also make this recipe on the stove-top by adding the tomato water from the canned tomatoes and/or vegetable or chicken broth if your tomatoes are salted and you're avoiding excess sodium. You'll need more liquid since more will evaporate than in a multi-cooker or other kitchen appliance in this recipe's title. Just simmer the pot on the stove for 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 shallots, diced
- 3 to 5 cloves garlic, crushed with the flat of knife, thinly sliced
- 1/2-1 cup diced, fresh parsley, chiffonaded
- 1/2 cup red wine (something good enough quality to drink with dinner, but don’t go overboard)
- 1/2 tablespoon sugar or other sweetener, to taste
- Salt and freshly ground black
- pepper
- 1 (794 g) can whole plum tomatoes, drained and chopped, or a can of diced tomatoes, drained (you can drink the tomato water if you're not avoiding sodium or using it for a stove-pot sauce)
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a pot if cooking on the stove or frying pan if cooking in the slow-cooker. When hot, add the shallots.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low, cover the pot, and sweat (them, not you) for 10-12 minutes. Add the garlic and parsley and re-cover for another 5 minutes.
- Add the wine and simmer the sauce until it’s reduced by half, about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes with the sugar and a little salt and pepper (you’ll want at least ó tsp of salt if your can of tomatoes was unsalted, but taste and adjust, keeping in mind that the sauce will concentrate as it reduces).
- Transfer the contents of the pot to the slow-cooker or Instant Pot and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. Or transfer the contents to the pressure cooker or Instant Pot and pressure cook on high for 10 minutes. Alternately, you can simply continue to simmering the sauce for 30 minutes. I like the slow-cooker method because the flavours marry better. In this case, matrimony is better than a fling.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 107Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 146mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 7gProtein: 2g
This nutritional info is automatically generated and is often a bit off, so please take it with a (non-literal) grain of salt.
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