Instant Pot Spaghetti
on Jan 14, 2021, Updated Jan 29, 2024
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Instant Pot Spaghetti with meat sauce is simple to make in your pressure cooker. A quick & easy dinner recipe perfect for busy weeknights!
I love some good Italian food- especially if I can make it quick and simple. Thankfully, my Instant Pot can do just that! Serve this up with a side of Cheesy Garlic Bread or salad topped with some Italian Dressing.
Instant Pot Spaghetti
There’s a point in the midweek where pretty tired out and the idea of having to whip up a super-involved dinner for my family doesn’t sound fun. Trust me, I love having everyone around the table for a nice dinner but if I can take most of the stress out of cooking, I will. This is where my pressure cooker and this recipe for Instant Pot Spaghetti enter the scene.
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This Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce dish is definitely a new favorite of mine. You wouldn’t think that a pressure cooker could cook pasta but it can- quite easily too! In addition, it can easily handle sauces, sauteeing, and all other sorts of tasks to make a delicious Italian dinner for your family. Combining prep and cooking time, you can even have this dish ready and served in about half-an-hour! With that spare time, you can even go ahead and fix up some delicious sides to go with dinner.
More Easy Italian Recipes
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Baked Ziti is one of my go-tos for get-togethers, parties, and Sunday dinners. It’s an easy casserole dish that turns out perfect every time- a great no-fail recipe with plenty of meat, cheese, and pasta sauce!
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These Lasagna Roll Ups are another great recipe for big families or feeding a crowd. So delicious and easy to make- who doesn’t love some meaty, cheesy lasagna?
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Whenever I’ve got some good Italian food at the dinner table, I’m always making some Easy Garlic Butter Spread. You can whip this stuff up in just a few minutes and it tastes amazing on some good bread or fluffy dinner rolls!
Ingredients for Instant Pot Spaghetti
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Ground Beef
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Onion
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Minced Garlic
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Pasta – Spaghetti is our go-to choice here.
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Canned Tomatoes – We like using crushed tomato, but if you want a smoother sauce, feel free to try using canned tomato sauce.
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Pasta/Marinara Sauce
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Beef Broth – In a pinch, you can use water here. We prefer the broth for added flavor!
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Spices – Salt & pepper are a must, though we’d recommend also adding some basil and oregano and maybe a bit of red pepper flake.
How to cook Pasta in Instant Pot
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Sautee your ground beef and onions before adding your other ingredients.
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Layer your ingredients in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker before adding some broth.
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Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes before letting sit uncovered for about 10 minutes to finish cooking.
Once you’ve diced your onions, toss them into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker with your ground beef and some garlic. Using the “sautee” option, cook the beef and onions until no more pink can be seen in the beef and the onions have softened up nicely. If your pressure cooker or Instant Pot doesn’t have a “sautee” feature, simply do this in a seperate pan before transferring back to your cooker. Make sure you give the bottom of the pot a good scrape with a wooden spatula- make sure nothing’s sticking to the bottom to prevent burning or scorching your onions!
With our onions cooked and our beef browned, we can start assembling our ingredients in the Instant Pot. We’re going to be working in a layered fashion- stacking our ingredients on top of one another. Layering will help prevent our ingredients from burning up. Our beef and onions will form the bottom layer.
Next up is a layer of our noodles. Chances are, the full-length noodles won’t fit in the pot. To remedy this problem, break your noodles either into halves or thirds. Thirds, especially, will cook much more evenly.
Now we want a layer of sauce. For the sauce, we’re going to use some crushed tomatoes…
… and some jarred marinara or spaghetti sauce.
It’s at this point we want to add our beef broth. Don’t pour your broth into the middle of the pot. You’ll wash away that sauce layer you put on top. Instead, pour your broth along the sides of the Instant Pot or pressure cooker- this will let it pour past the sauce and down to the noodles and beef. Tip the Instant Pot around to let the broth settle closer to the bottom.
Finally, what would spaghetti and meat sauce be without some Italian spices? On top of our sauce layer, we’re going to add some basil, oregano, salt & pepper, and a bit of red pepper flake.
With all of our Instant Pot Pasta ingredients assembled, we can finally get to cooking! Attach the lid and set your cooker to cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. If the option’s available, set it quick release the pressure as soon as it’s done- if not, just carefully do it manually when it finishes cooking.
After releasing the pressure, remove the lid and allow your Instant Spaghetti to sit for about 10-12 minutes. This will allow your noodles to absorb a bit more moisture- giving you a tastier end product. After letting your pasta sit, feel free to plate up with some good bread, and enjoy!
Instant Pot Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 lb Ground Beef
- 1 Onion, diced
- 1/2 tsp Minced Garlic
- 1 cup Water
- 6 oz Spaghetti, uncooked
- 14 oz Crushed Tomatoes
- 2 cup Marinara Sauce, or pasta sauce
- 3/4 cup Beef Broth
- 1 tsp Oregano
- 1 tsp Basil
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1 tbsp Parsley, chopped (for garnish)
Instructions
- Use saute setting on Instant Pot to cook beef onion and garlic until browned. Drain excess fat.
- Break the spaghetti into thirds and place on top of ground beef.
- Put the crushed tomatoes and marinara sauce on top of the spaghetti layer.
- Pour the beef broth around the edge of the instant pot,
- avoid washing away the tomato layer.
- Season with oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and red pepper.
- Cook for 8 minutes on high pressure.
- Quick release the pressure, remove the lid and allow to sit for 10-12 minutes to complete cooking.
- Stir to mix and garnish with parsley.
Notes
- After browning the ground beef make sure you give the bottom of the pot a good scrape with a wooden spatula- make sure nothing's sticking to the bottom to prevent burning or scorching your onions!
- After adding the broth, Tip the Instant Pot around to let the broth settle closer to the bottom.
- If you have any noodles that have "clumped together", usually stirring with a pasta fork will solve that problem.
Nutrition
I didn’t make it yet, but when does the 1 cup of water go in, and why not add the liquids before adding the noodles and sauce? Wouldn’t that be easier?
Hi Kathy! You would use water or broth that I added at the end. You are correct, I will make this again this weekend and add the water before layering. My husband pointed this same thing out to me when he was creating the recipe card but, I had him insert the recipe as I had made it, lol. I will let you know my results and change the recipe if it works that way as well.