This Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is the perfect easy family meal on the table in 40 minutes! Comfort food for the whole family made fast and easy!
If you’ve been a reader of The Busy Baker for awhile now you’ll know very well how much I love a good, easy weeknight meal. And ever since I discovered how amazing the Instant Pot is I’ve been having so much fun coming up with all kinds of delicious easy meals my family loves. This Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is our family’s latest favourite meal – it’s SO easy to make, it’s way more delicious than traditional spaghetti and meat sauce, and the kids just gobble it up!
Cooking pasta in its own sauce is the perfect way to create the most delicious, silky sauce because the pasta releases its starch as it cooks – and rather than pouring all that starch down the drain with the pasta water, using it to create a thick and velvety texture in spaghetti sauce is just a genius move.
As this Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce cooks, the Instant Pot does all the work for you (which is why we love it so much!) and leaves you with perfectly cooked spaghetti noodles in a thick, meaty sauce that’s just to die for. What could be better??!!
If you’re here from our Easy Weeknight Meal Solutions e-course, welcome! Today we’re sharing one of our favourite hacks for simplifying meal time: the Instant Pot!
In addition to creating the BEST pasta sauce, the Instant Pot cuts down on cooking time and allows you to brown meat & soften veggies on saute mode, and then pop on the lid and pressure cook while you take care of the rest of the meal. We LOVE the instant pot for making those easy set-it-and-forget-it meals, and we know you will too!
Here at The Busy Baker we have shared so many of our favourite mealtime tips, tricks and secrets with you over the years. If you haven’t already signed up, we offer a FREE email course where we share our BEST weeknight meal tips, tricks and recipes to help you feed your hungry family without losing your sanity. Sign up for our FREE course below:
And if you’ve already taken the course, we offer 11 weeks of family meal plans for sale in The Busy Baker shop, complete with a week’s worth of meals planned for you, a grocery list ready to go, all our best mealtime tips and tricks, and an optional meal prep guide to help you get ahead of the dinnertime game. We hope you’ll check them out!!
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If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet and you’re navigating a busy life while trying to feed a hungry family 7 days a week, we would highly recommend investing in an Instant Pot. It took many months for us to have the courage to give it a try, but once we did we were hooked!
Our most used Instant Pot is the 8-Quart Instant Pot Duo (paid link) because we’re feeding a family (and we like having leftovers for the next day), but we test all our Instant Pot Recipes in the 6-Quart Instant Pot Duo (paid link) as well so you can be sure they’ll work for you too! If you’re looking for more delicious Instant Pot recipes, check out ALL my Instant Pot recipes HERE!
In addition to an Instant Pot, you’ll need these items to make this recipe (affiliate links):
- wooden or other cooking utensils
- liquid measuring cups
- measuring cups and spoons
- a sharp knife for chopping
- a sturdy cutting board
To make this recipe you’ll need:
- Olive oil
- Ground beef
- Onion
- Garlic
- Carrot
- Celery
- Red Wine (optional)
- Italian Seasoning (or dried thyme, oregano, and basil)
- Salt and Pepper
- Tomato Puree (or tomato sauce)
- Spaghetti Noodles
- Chicken or Beef stock
Time needed: 40 minutes
Making Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce is SO easy! Use my PRO TIPS for the perfect Instant Pot Spaghetti every time!
- Sauté the meat and veggies for extra flavour.
Cooking the beef and veggies first makes for a short pressure cooking time and it creates amazing flavour!
- Deglaze the pan to prevent burning.
If you want to avoid that dreaded “burn” notice, deglaze the pan with a splash of red wine (or use a splash of stock instead if you don’t cook with wine) and scrape up any caramelized bits before pressure cooking.
- Layer the meat/veggie mixture, sauce, noodles and stock.
Before pressure cooking, remove 2/3 of the meat mixture and layer the sauce, noodles, stock and meat mixture until everything is added.
- Do NOT stir before cooking!
Resist the urge to stir before cooking. Stirring makes the noodles clump up and causes the noodles and meat mixture to sink to the bottom where they’ll burn. For even cooking, cook the ingredients in layers (as mentioned in the instruction above) and wait until after the pressure is released to stir.
- Cook on High Pressure for 6 minutes.
The noodles only need 6 minutes to cook to al dente and absorb the liquid!
- Quick Release.
Release the pressure manually. If you let the pressure release naturally the noodles will be WAY over-cooked.
- Stir well while it’s hot.
Using a pair of tongs to toss the cooked noodles in the sauce will help any noodles clumped together to become unstuck, and it will distribute the noodles and the sauce evenly throughout the pot for easy serving.
- Serve immediately.
Since the sauce contains a lot of starch from the pasta, it’s best to serve this dish immediately while the sauce is velvety smooth. (To reheat as leftovers, add a splash or two of water to a pan and reheat on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot on the sauté setting).
What to serve with spaghetti
We recommend serving a garden salad with this spaghetti recipe, as well as our famous Garlic Bread.
How to reheat spaghetti
Add a splash of water to a pan on the stove or the Instant Pot, and reheat the leftovers in the pan over medium heat until heated through.
Can I make this recipe gluten-free?
We don’t recommend making this recipe with gluten-free pasta as the texture of the sauce depends on the starch in the pasta.
What if I get a burn notice on my Instant Pot?
This recipe has been designed to prevent the burn notice (food sticking to the bottom of the Instant Pot) and has been tested more than 10 times. If you get the burn notice it’s likely because there isn’t sufficient liquid in the sauce. We recommend adding an additional 1/2 cup of liquid and scraping the bottom of the Instant Pot before trying again. Be sure to follow the recipe instructions for layering the noodles to prevent burning.
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I hope you love this Instant Pot recipe as much as we do! Let me know in the comments below, what’s your favourite side dish to serve with spaghetti? I’d love to know!
Looking for even more delicious meal ideas like this one? You’ll LOVE these:
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Watch the video below to see exactly how I make this recipe. You can find more delicious recipe videos on my YouTube channel
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Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Recipe: Equipment
- 6 or 8-quart Instant Pot
Recipe: Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/4 cup diced carrots
- 1/4 cup diced celery
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine
- 4 cups tomato puree (or tomato sauce)
- 3 cups chicken stock (or beef stock, or water)
- 1 pound spaghetti noodles
- grated parmesan cheese and fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Recipe: Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot on saute mode and when heated add the olive oil.
- Add the beef and cook until almost browned.
- Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, spices, and salt and pepper and stir well. Continue to cook on saute mode until the onions soften.
- Add the red wine (replace with a splash of water or stock if you'd prefer) and scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pot.
- Remove about 2/3 of the meat mixture to a plate.
- Break the spaghetti noodles in half. Add about 1/3 of the tomato sauce, 1/3 of the noodles, and 1/3 of the stock to the pot. Repeat the layers again (add 1/3 of the meat mixture, 1/3 of the tomato sauce, 1/3 of the noodles, and 1/3 of the stock), and then again.
- Do NOT stir. Simply make sure the noodles aren't in big clumps as you add them, and be sure all the noodles are submerged in the liquid.
- Add the lid and seal, turn the valve to sealing and set to pressure cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
- Once the pressure cooking is finished, release the pressure manually (be careful!) and remove the lid.
- Use a pair of tongs to toss everything together and serve immediately with some grated parmesan and fresh parsley (optional).
Recipe: Notes
Recipe: Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.