Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
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You may not think pasta night can get any easier, but with this Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce recipe, the classic becomes a truly one-pot dish. It’s almost shocking how perfectly the pressure cooker can tenderize spaghetti and make a flavorful meat and tomato sauce all at once. Add garlic knots and a simple salad to complete the meal.
Making a classic even simpler.
Spaghetti is often the rare meal that excites everyone in a family, and thank goodness for that. Despite its simplicity, though, making it can actually involve quite a few different pots and pans, especially with a from-scratch sauce. If you want spaghetti but need the ultimate streamlined technique, this is the way to go.
I was skeptical of Instant Pot pasta for a long time, but I’m glad I got over it, because the convenience is exceptional and the results are delicious. The pasta comes out perfectly al dente, tender but with a bite, while the sauce is rich and flavorful. The pasta absorbs some of the marinara and broth as it cooks, which is why it tastes so good! My husband says this spaghetti, more than any other I make, reminds him of his mother’s homemade meat sauce. This may explain why leftovers always disappear, even though the recipe does make a rather large amount of food. Serve with some garlic bread and a salad, and this modern appliance can deliver a truly cozy family dinner every time.
Ingredient & Substitution Notes
- Ground beef. I recommend using a fairly lean ground beef, around 90%. This will render just enough fat to add flavor and cook the onion, but not so much that you’ll feel an urge to dab it off. For extra flavor, substitute ground Italian sausage or ground pork for part of the beef. You also can toss in up to 8 ounces additional meat without changing other parts of the recipe.
- Uncooked spaghetti. I have not tested this with other types of pasta. I suspect it would generally work OK, but the cook time may be a bit off, especially for any thicker type of noodle. For the most reliable result, let this spaghetti stay spaghetti.
- Marinara sauce. Homemade marinara is always a treat, but any store-bought brand you like does the trick as well.
- Onion, beef broth, and diced tomatoes. Use regular beef broth, bone broth, or make your own using Better Than Bouillon – one of my favorite short-cuts for a product such as beef broth that I use relatively infrequently.
- Dried seasonings: Italian seasoning, kosher salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.
- Optional for serving: Parmesan, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes.
Pro Tip
This type of easy recipe is exactly why I love my ButcherBox subscription. By stocking my freezer bimonthly with high-quality meat, I know I typically have the ingredients available to make a simple family dinner like this even on nights when other plans don’t work out.
How To Make Instant Pot Spaghetti
I’ve included a few step-by-step photos here to make this recipe extra easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
I love that it all comes together in one place — the Instant Pot, of course — and then literally cooks itself. Thanks to the appliance’s multiple functions, you can brown and season the meat, layer on the dried pasta, and top with the ingredients that will both cook the spaghetti and make up the sauce all in one.
Spaghetti is always easy, yes, but typically requires a large pot for cooking the pasta, a colander, and another pan or even two for making or warming the sauce. This condenses all of that to one item to use and to wash.
Begin by browning the beef together with the seasonings and chopped onion using the Instant Pot’s sauté function.
Break the spaghetti in half and lay it out in a criss-cross pattern over the browned beef. Try to fan out the spaghetti a bit, to minimize individual strands sticking together as they cook.
Pour marinara sauce, broth, water, and diced tomatoes with all juices from the can over the spaghetti. Lightly press down on the spaghetti so most of it is under or at least coated by the liquid.
Cover, seal, and cook for 7 minutes on high pressure, followed by a quick release. After releasing the pressure, open the lid and stir everything together very well. Let it rest for about 5 minutes; this lets a bit of the excess liquid evaporate quickly.
Pro Tip
Press down but do not stir after adding the pasta and liquid ingredients! For the pasta to cook properly, it should be mostly submerged in the broth-tomato-water mixture, but still fanned out in layers on top of, not mixed into, the browned meat.
Stir well once more to get more of the meat sauce off the bottom of the pot and incorporated throughout the pasta. Serve and enjoy!
Top Tips for Success
- Avoid a burn notice by scraping the bottom of the pot well after browning the beef to be sure any stuck-on bits are loosened and incorporated into the sauce.
- Don’t skip the broth. Using part broth as opposed to all water is an easy way to infuse extra flavor into this simple spaghetti. Since the cooking liquid is also forming the sauce, using all water can yield a sauce that borders on bland and requires a lot of extra salt to perk up.
- Add veggies directly if you like. Shredded carrots, chopped bell peppers, or diced zucchini can be added in at the same time as the onion to bump up this spaghetti’s nutritional quotient.
- If you want to catch some of the steam from the Instant Pot quick release, hold a kitchen towel a few inches over the valve as it spurts out. I like to use a dirty towel for this, and just toss is straight into the laundry bin afterwards.
- If the pasta is still tough after the quick pressure release, you can close the lid for another 2-3 minutes to let it soften more, or even fully seal the lid and cook on high pressure again for another 1-2 minutes. The 7 minute cook time is reliably perfect for me with Barilla, DeCecco, or Trader Joe’s pasta, but a specialty brand or more thick-cut spaghetti could still have excessive “bite.”
Storage & Reheating
Storing leftovers: Stash extra spaghetti and meat sauce together in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, tightly-covered of course.
Warming: Reheat portions in the microwave for 90-120 seconds, with a paper towel over the plate to prevent splatter, or in a small saucepan over medium heat, adding 1-2 teaspoons of water if needed to loosen the sauce. Fresh Parmesan on top goes a long way.
I have not yet tried freezing this.
Related Recipes
You might also enjoy this simple pasta marinara, meatballs marinara, lemon chicken pasta, salmon pesto pasta, or easy creamy cavatappi with sun-dried tomatoes.
Other favorite dinners from the pressure cooker include Instant Pot mac and cheese, Instant Pot ground beef tacos, wild rice soup, potato cheddar chowder, and the most flavorful chicken tinga.
If you try this Instant Pot Spaghetti recipe, don’t forget to rate it and leave a comment below. I love hearing how recipes turn out in your kitchen, and it helps other readers, too.
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Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 small yellow onion chopped
- 16 ounces (1 pound) uncooked spaghetti
- 24 ounces marinara sauce
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 and 1/2 cups water
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juices
- Parmesan, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes optional for serving
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to its sauté setting, then add the ground beef, Italian seasoning, salt, onion powder, and garlic powder.1 pound lean ground beef, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Once the meat has rendered a small amount of fat, stir in the onion. Continue to cook, stirring frequently to break up the meat, until the onion is softened and the meat is fully browned. Turn off the Instant Pot.1/2 small yellow onion
- Break the spaghetti noodles in half and fan them in a criss-cross pattern on top of the meat.16 ounces (1 pound) uncooked spaghetti
- Pour marinara sauce, beef broth, water, and diced tomatoes on top. Gently press the spaghetti down so it is mostly submerged in liquid, but do not stir. (This is important!)24 ounces marinara sauce, 2 cups beef broth, 1 and 1/2 cups water, 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- Close the lid, seal, and cook on high pressure for 7 minutes.
- When the 7 minutes is up, do a quick release of the pressure, remove the lid, and stir very well.
- Let the spaghetti sit for 5 minutes on the keep warm setting with the lid open, then sample and season with more salt to taste. Serve with generous amounts of grated Parmesan, basil, and red pepper flakes if desired.Parmesan, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes
Notes
- Ground Beef: If your ground beef is ~90% lean, I recommend keeping all of the rendered fat in the Instant Pot for flavor and to help the onion cook. If you’re starting with beef that is closer to ~80% lean, let it brown partially, then dab up some of the grease before adding the seasonings and onion.
