If you love artichokes and olives, you’ll love this sauce! This homemade Instant Pot Sauce with Artichokes and Olives takes only 10 minutes to cook yet tastes like an Italian grandmother has been simmering the sauce all day.

I always have cans of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste in my cupboard. These are the base for this sauce. I love a lot of extra virgin olive oil in my sauces so I’m adding a generous glug. Olive oil, onions, and garlic are the start to any good recipe. You can’t have olive oil without olives, so I’m adding a lot of those too!

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For the absolute ease of it, I’m using canned artichoke hearts for this recipe. While I prefer the taste and texture of fresh or even frozen artichokes, I’m going for pure convenience here. Whenever I make an Instant Pot recipe, I try to incorporate some shortcut ingredients to save time. If you have whole artichoke hearts, cut them in half. You want them to be bite-sized pieces. They will break down a little bit in the Instant Pot too.

Recipes like this are why I love the Instant Pot so much. It really gets you to use up all the food sitting in your cupboard. It can cook dried beans without soaking them. It can cook rice and grains with ease. Any kind of canned or bottled sauce can be the start of a recipe. In the colder months, I like to make a lot of recipes that use these “cupboard foods” and the Instant Pot just makes it so much quicker and easier.

One great way to use up this sauce up for leftovers is for a Mediterranean diet breakfast recipe. Take a couple spoonfuls of the sauce and add it to a frying pan. Add a splash of water. Bring it to a boil and then drop 3 eggs into it. Turn the heat to medium low and cover the frying pan. In 5 minutes the eggs will be perfectly poached in the tomato sauce. This is similar to shakshuka.

This is the first Instant pot tomato sauce recipe on Mediterranean Living. There is so much potential with what one can do with a tomato sauce in the Instant Pot, which means I will be creating more in the future. Until then, if you are looking for more Instant Pot Mediterranean recipes, check these out!  Please rate and review below!

Instant Pot Beans and Greens (15-Minute Meal)

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7 Mediterranean Instant Pot Recipes

Purchasing an Instant Pot

The Instant Pot we use is the 6 quart version.   It is just right for recipes that serve 4 all the way up to 8 servings.  For us, it seems to be the perfect size. Below is the one we purchased from Amazon.  I highly recommend it!

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Instant Pot Tomato Sauce with Olives and Artichokes

Instant Pot Tomato Sauce with Artichokes and Olives

George Zikos
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 249 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2-16 ounces cans artichoke hearts, drained and cut in half
  • 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, whole
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
  • 2-28 ounces cans crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions
 

  • Set the Instant Pot to saute. Add the extra virgin olive oil and wait one minute to heat up.
  • Add the onion and garlic, saute for one minute. Stir often.
  • Add the artichokes, olives, chopped basil and saute for one minute, stirring often.
  • Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir well. Cover the Instant Pot.
  • Set the manual timer for 10 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes for the Instant Pot to reach the temperature it needs for it to start the timer counting down. You will hear a beep when this happens. When the timer reaches zero, carefully turn the vent to "venting". Use a utensil or a towel so you don't burn your hand from the steam being released.

Nutrition

Calories: 249kcalCarbohydrates: 5gProtein: 1gFat: 26gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 19gSodium: 267mgPotassium: 128mgFiber: 1gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 206IUVitamin C: 4mgCalcium: 27mgIron: 1mg
Have you tried this recipe? Tell us about it!Click here to rate this recipe in the comments section below.
About the Author: George Zikos
George studied International Business in Greece in 2015 for three semesters. His family is from the island of Crete, and he lived with them for a whole summer. During that time, he started working for Mediterranean Living and contributing his firsthand experiences of the traditional Cretan diet. He learned fluent Greek along the way, being fully immersed in a traditional Cretan village. He is since graduated with a business degree from Worcester State University. George loves language and traveling, so he completed a TEFL certificate program at the Boston Language Institute in order to teach English abroad and travel the world. He currently works full-time blogging, recipe formulating, and social media marketing for Mediterranean Living. His passions include language, gardening, hiking, skateboarding, and watching sports. He dreams of living in Crete one day, after he travels the world learning as many languages and cultures as possible.

9 Comments

  1. Lori March 15, 2019 at 11:20 pm - Reply

    Can you make this and put the pasta in the pot so it all cooks together

    • George Zikos March 18, 2019 at 3:52 pm - Reply

      I’ve never tried cooking the pasta in the Instant Pot before. It may make the sauce too starchy because there’s nowhere for it to go.

    • Roma McCaherty March 23, 2019 at 11:01 pm - Reply

      Other instant pot recipes say the pasta must be covered by the sauce. So you probably have to add water to it. The 10 minute time frame would be ok for some thicjer pastas. I think you will have to experiment with it. I have heard tomato sauce can give you a burn notice and you have to go in an add water.

  2. Sarah December 17, 2018 at 11:18 am - Reply

    Absolutely delicious! I have made this several times, as I am cooking for one a scale it back and use one 28 ounce can of tomatoes and one can of artichoke hearts.

  3. Melissa December 4, 2018 at 11:28 pm - Reply

    How would you cook this in a regular crockpot?

    • George Zikos December 13, 2018 at 6:20 pm - Reply

      Thanks to your comment, I am making this recipe today in the crockpot. I will let you know how it comes out!

  4. Judy Millette November 11, 2018 at 2:59 am - Reply

    I can’t wait to try this… Sounds delish and easy!

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