Instant Pot Spaghetti Recipe with Meat Sauce
Instant Pot Spaghetti is an unbelievably delicious one pot dinner! This tender, flavorful pasta is cooked right in the sauce, broth, and meat mixture to soak up every bit of flavor.
Why Is This The Best Way To Make Spaghetti Dinner:
- This easy dinner comes together in just about half an hour.
- It’s a one pot dinner! That means it’s less of a hassle to make AND has way easier clean up than other methods.
- It’s an easier recipe but just as flavorful as Classic Spaghetti Sauce and Pasta Bolognese.
- Instant Pot recipe is much quicker than traditional cooking methods, and the pressure cooker does all of the work for you.
- This spaghetti with meat sauce is the definition of an easy weeknight dinner.
- Pressure cooking seals in the flavor and the results are fantastically flavorful and tender!
- This spaghetti recipe is budget friendly, filling, and tasty as can be.
- Homemade Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce adds all the flavor and easy to make ahead of time.
Table of contents
How To Make Instant Pot Spaghetti
- First, measure and prepare all of your ingredients.
- Sauté the onions in the Instant Pot until softened before stirring in the minced garlic. Cook the garlic until fragrant.
- Add the ground beef, breaking it up as it cooks, season, and continue cooking until just cooked.
- Pour in 1 cup of chicken stock, while you scrape the bottom of the pot. Then, pour in half of the pasta sauce.
- Break the dry spaghetti in half and layer them in a circle while crisscrossing. DO NOT STIR IT IN!
- Top the spaghetti with the remaining sauce, then the remaining chicken stock. Still, do NOT stir!
- Close the lid and latch it. Turn the valve to “seal,” and set the pressure cooker to cook on the “high pressure” setting for 5 minutes.
- Let it do a natural release for 5-7 minutes followed by a quick release.
- Open the lid and gently stir.
- Top it off with some freshly grated parmesan cheese as you serve.
Tips for the Best Spaghetti in the Instant Pot
- Deglaze the pot after browning the meat. When the meat is done cooking, pour in the chicken stock as you scrape the bottom of the pot. It’s important to scrape everything off the bottom of the pot so you don’t get the “burn” notice on the Instant Pot. Plus, it adds more flavor to the dish!
- Layer the dry pasta in the middle of the sauce. Add half of the sauce to the meat and half the chicken stock. Then, layer the pasta and top it off with remaining pasta sauce and chicken stock. This will ensure that while the pasta cooks, it will be fully submerged and cook evenly.
- Place pasta in a crisscross pattern for less clumping. Don’t just dump the pasta in the pot, or it may clump together. So place pasta in a crisscrossed circles to avoid any clumping.
- Don’t stir it once you layer the sauce and pasta – again, DO NOT stir it! Don’t touch it at all, as tempted as you may be. Just cover and cook.
- Use homemade sauce for best results. For the best flavor, use homemade Instant Pot spaghetti sauce or another homemade sauce you love! Store-bought pasta sauces are usually not as flavorful as homemade. If you want to use store-bought, taste it first and you can adjust the seasoning by adding a little more salt, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and/or herbs. If you go with homemade sauce, keep in mind that you can make spaghetti sauce ahead of time or right before making the pasta.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can store leftovers in an air-tight food storage container with a lid, in the refrigerator. Make sure that the pasta is cooled to room temperature before storing. Properly stored, it should last 3-4 days.
To reheat leftover Instant Pot spaghetti in meat sauce, you can easily do it a microwave. Make sure to reheat in 30-40 second intervals, mixing in between, until just heated through.
Even though I always prefer homemade pasta sauce, I still keep a jar of marinara in a pantry just in case. Personally, I like La San Marzano Marinara Sauce or Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce. For a more budget friendly option, Whole Foods has a pretty good sauce in their brand, 365 Organic Marinara.
Ground beef is the most classic option for spaghetti in meat sauce but there are other options available. You could instead opt for ground pork, ground Italian sausage, ground turkey, or ground chicken.
Absolutely! You can keep the sauce in the refrigerator for up to a week and use it in this recipe or other Italian recipes like lasagna, Italian meatballs, or many other dishes. Prepare the sauce as directed, cool it down, and store in a glass jar with an air-tight lid, in the refrigerator.
More Pasta Recipes To Try
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Instant Pot Spaghetti Recipe
Equipment
- Wooden spatula
- Measuring cups
- Knife and cutting board
Ingredients
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef can also use Italian sausage, ground pork, ground turkey, or ground chicken
- salt
- pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 3 cups spaghetti sauce (or 24 oz jar of your favorite sauce)
- 2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1 lb uncooked spaghetti
Instructions
- Prepare and measure your ingredients before starting to cook. Dice onion, smash and mince garlic.
- Preheat Instant Pot on "sauté" or "sear" setting and add some oil. Add onions and sauté until softened. Stir in minced garlic and cook until just fragrant.
- Add ground beef and break it up. Season with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Cook, breaking up the clumps as it cooks, until the beef is browned and just cooked.
- Pour in 1 cup of the chicken stock while scraping the bottom of the pot as you pour. Pour in half the pasta sauce as well.
- Break spaghetti in half and layer them in a circle, while crisscrossing. DO NOT STIR.
- Top layered spaghetti with remaining sauce and then pour in remaining chicken stock. Resist the urge to stir!
- Close the lid and make sure it is latched all the way. Turn the valve to “seal” and set the pressure cooker to cook on “high pressure” setting for 5 minutes. Once time is up, do a natural release for 5-7 minutes and then a quick release. (If you want your pasta to be al-dente, do natural release for only a couple of minutes.)
- Open the pressure cooker lid and carefully take out the pot insert. Gently stir, plate the pasta into bowl, and top off with parmesan cheese. Note that the pasta will be scalding hot! So give it a little bit of time to cool down.
Video
Notes
- Use different meats: If you’d like, you can use any ground Italian sausage, ground pork, ground turkey, or ground chicken instead of beef.
- If using jarred pasta sauce: you may need to adjust the seasoning. Many store-bought sauces don’t have as much flavor as homemade, so feel free to taste it and add more salt, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, or herbs. The sauces that I personally like include La San Marzano Marinara Sauce or Rao’s Homemade Marinara Sauce. For a more budget friendly option, Whole Foods has a pretty good sauce in their brand, 365 Organic Marinara.
- Store: in an air-tight food storage container with a lid, in the refrigerator. Make sure that the pasta is cooled to room temperature before storing. Properly stored, it should last 3-4 days.
- To reheat leftover Instant Pot spaghetti in meat sauce, you can easily do it a microwave. Make sure to reheat in 30-40 second intervals, mixing in between, until just heated through.
Nutrition
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles in January 2022.
Categories:
30 Minute Meals, Beef Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Instant Pot Main Dishes, Instant Pot Recipes, Most Popular Recipes, Pasta Recipes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Yes, but make sure you’re not using a large instant pot because you have to have a minimum amount so it doesn’t burn. I would not recommend freezing but it does store while in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. When I make it my husband eats it the rest of the week. 😉
Can this recipe be halved? Or, does it freeze well? Not sure I have ever frozen my cooked spaghetti. There are just two of us, so one pound of spaghetti is a lot.
Absolutely! You can easily half the recipe but also, you can store leftovers and reheat them later! Either way 🙂
Hi! How much pasta do we put in this?
It is 1 pound of pasta and I fixed it in the recipe as well, thank you!