My Best Tomato Sauce Ever

I just made my best tomato sauce ever so I am going to write down exactly what I did for future reference.

I have made tomato sauce for decades slow cooking it on the stove top but this time I made it in my large 10 qt Instant Pot and cooked it for an hour which is the equivalent of cooking it all day.

The first thing I did was chop two celery hearts and added them to my Instant Pot. (My market was out of regular celery otherwise I would've used one head). Then I chopped a gigantic white onion and added it to the pot. Then I peeled a bulb and a half of (big) garlic cloves (I cored and chopped them with kosher salt to absorb the vital juices) and added them to the pot. Then I added 2 bay leaves, and about a tablespoon each of dried parsley, basil, + oregano and 2 teaspoons of red chili flakes. (If you have fresh herbs, by all means use them.)

I sauteed all of this in a generous amount of olive oil on the Instant pot saute setting. I let this cook for ten minutes while I prepared the next steps.

I opened 2 (6 oz) cans of large black olives and drained out the water and chopped them up and added them to the onions and celery mixture. (olives have always been my secret to great sauce)

Then I opened 3 cans of (28 oz) crushed tomatoes and spooned them into the onion celery olive mixture.

I turned off the sautee button to avoid splattering sauce.

I used a cup of water to rinse out any of the extra tomato clinging to the inside of the tomato cans (since the recipe calls for a cup of water anyway).

Then I added about a cup of Carlo Rossi Chianti to sweeten the sauce and give it age.

Then I added 1 6oz can of tomato paste. (REMEMBER don't stir it in, leave it as a lump otherwise you'll get a burn notice).

I tasted the sauce even before cooking it further and it was already fantastic!

I closed the lid and hit the pressure cooker for 20 minutes, and did this cycle 3 times! Which means perhaps next time I will hit the button for 60 minutes. The first time it didn't seal, so good thing I was checking on it.

When the hour was up I let it rest and release on it's own for 25-30 minutes while I cleaned up. It tasted amazing, it tasted like it cooked all day and rested overnight. I've never made a sauce this good. Usually tomato sauce takes 2 days to taste this good. We ate it with whole wheat spaghetti and Romano cheese sprinkled on top. Tonight we'll have it on homemade sourdough baked as a pizza.

Note: The sauce seemed liquidy at first but after stirring and cooling it was perfect. 

Note: Taste your sauce. If it seems too acidic, you may need to add a pinch or two of sugar.

Note: Sometimes skip the saute stage and all is fine. Sometimes I add chopped carrots with the celery.