Here’s an easy and delicious way to get rid of 6 pounds of tomatoes in one fell swoop – you’re going to be making LOTS of sauce.

Once I figured out how to reduce the time to evaporate the liquid of the tomatoes in the pressure cooker ketchup recipe, by keeping them mostly whole, I realized I could use this for tomato sauce, too. In fact, I had no choice, as my husband who can’t let a good deal slip by him, arrived at home with another 8k (16lb) box of ripe plum tomatoes.

I’m going to pressure cook my way through 8kilos (18 pounds) of tomatoes today – wish me luck! A photo posted by Laura D. A. Pazzaglia (@hippressurecook) on Jul 18, 2016 at 1:39am PDT

Tripling the quantity of tomatoes, from two to six pounds while reducing liquids initially gave me a “scorched” sauce as the viscous tomato juice struggled to boil. So here, instead of closing the pressure cooker and going, we bring the contents to a boil before pressure cooking.

See Also: Pressure Cook Tomato-based Recipes like a pro!

Keep the skins and seeds, really..

Traditionally Italians peel and seed everything – including tomatoes for sauce. But my cooking style is very rustic, for the sake of ease. So, it was a lovely surprise to discover that just like there are benefits to leaving the skins on potatoes (protein) there are also benefits to consuming the skins and seeds in the tomatoes!

According to a study, a large portion of the tomato’s antioxidants (aka phenolics, flavonoids, lycopene and Vitamin C) happen to be in the tomato’s skin and seeds. In fact, more than half of the tomato’s nutrients are found in the pulp. So, according to science, using the whole tomato in recipes doubles this veggie’s nutritional punch.

Which setting to use to reduce..

If you have a stovetop pressure cooker, choosing the heat setting for reducing the cooking liquid (after pressure cooking) is easy – just turn the flame as low as it will go while ensuring the contents are still bubbling and boiling.

Electric pressure cookers all have different saute, brown, and reduction settings that all cook to different temperatures and times. I found that on the Instant Pot that the “Saute LESS” setting worked the best – however it times out at 30 minutes, so when you go to check and stir the tomatoes it’s time to start that setting, again. For the Breville Fast Slow Pro the setting that worked the best was “Saute LO” which will run for 40 minutes before needing to be re-set – the “Reduction” setting of the Breville only goes for 10 minutes and cannot be increased so I don’t recommend using it unless you want to re-set it six times. I just got a Fagor LUX, and have not had a chance to make this sauce in it, yet, but the “Simmer” setting should work here -it goes for 30 minutes at a time.

For electric pressure cookers without the brown or saute’ function, just choose any pressure program and use it with the lid open (be aware that these could timeout at 20 or 30 minutes – so be sure to check that the cooker is still in “heat-up” mode when you go swish everything around).

Use it plain or fancied-up

This basic sauce is pretty darn good on its own, but with a few additions, you can get completely different flavors and effects. Toss in grilled zucchini strips for a nice summer feel. Or, add tuna and capers for a one pot meal. Or, mix-in a cup of ricotta to turn this into a creamy “pink” sauce. Leave a comment, below, to let us know how you used or zazzed-up your large-batch tomato sauce!

Preserving the harvest..

Personally, my family goes through A LOT of tomato sauce so stacking these jars in the refrigerator is not a problem for us. However, if you want to keep the sauce for longer, let it cool and transfer to zip-lock bags and freeze. If you have a pressure canner, or a pressure cooker/canner, hot pack it and process it for the “pasta sauce (no meat)” pressure canning processing time appropriate for your jar size, canner type, and altitude.

Pressure Cooker Accessories Pr. Cook Time Pr. Level Open 6 L or larger none 5 min. + more High(2) Normal