This Easy Homemade Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce recipe is made from scratch and the spaghetti and sauce are cooked together to make a quick and easy one-pot meal that’s kid-friendly and delicious! You can also use jar sauce instead of the crushed tomatoes.
Select the Saute function and preheat the Instant Pot.
Add olive oil to the inner pot.
Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3 to 5 minutes. (If the beef browns too quickly, press Cancel until the Instant Pot cools down a bit and press the Saute button again.)
Drain the fat or remove fat from the beef with a small ladle.
Add onion and garlic. Stir until onion is translucent.
Stir in salt, sugar, dried basil, dried oregano, black pepper and crushed red pepper.
Deglaze pot with a tablespoon or two of broth, stirring until liquid has nearly evaporated. Make sure there are no brown bits stuck the the bottom of the inner pot. This will help you avoid the Burn Message!
Press Cancel to turn off Instant Pot.
Add remaining broth and stir.
Add crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, but don’t stir. This will also help you avoid the Burn Message!
Divide spaghetti into three batches. Add spaghetti to the inner pot in a criss-cross pattern: add one-third of spaghetti over the tomatoes, spreading it out horizontally. Push down with a spatula to submerge the pasta. Repeat with the remaining batches (see the blog post for step by step photos).
Using a spatula, push down on spaghetti until it has submerged in the liquid.
Close the lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 6 minutes.
Open the lid and stir spaghetti and meat sauce until combined. If there are any strands of spaghetti stuck together, use a fork to separate the strands.
If you find the spaghetti is too liquidy, allow it to rest for about 10 minutes, and it will absorb the extra liquid. If it's still too liquidy, select Saute mode and simmer until thickened.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley and shredded parmesan cheese before serving.
Video
Notes
Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. minced garlic, cut vegetables, etc.
* Use 2 minutes Natural Pressure Release (NPR) for al dente pasta.