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Yield: 4 servings
Ready In: 26 mins
This is the quickest and easiest way to make spaghetti and meat sauce: In the Instant Pot! The pressure cooker does most of the work and the result is absolutely delicious, so this has been one of our favorite family meals on busy nights lately.
Recommended Equipment:
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup finely chopped onion
- ½ cup diced celery
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 12 oz spaghetti (uncooked, broken in half)
- 2 ¼ cups broth (beef or chicken are both fine; see notes)
- 28- oz jar spaghetti sauce
- Grated parmesan cheese (to serve)
Instructions
- Cook vegetables and ground beef: Set a 6-quart electric pressure cooker to "sauté". Add oil, then add onion and celery and cook until onion is translucent. Add ground beef and seasoning, stir well and cook until browned. Switch off instant pot.
- Add pasta and sauce: Evenly place uncooked spaghetti over beef and vegetable mixture. Pour in broth (it should come up to the spaghetti). Spread the spaghetti sauce on top. Do not stir!
- Pressure cook: Close lid and set the valve to "sealing". Cook on high pressure for 6 minutes. Quick release pressure, then open the lid. Stir well and serve immediately with grated parmesan cheese, if desired.
Nora’s Tips
Ingredient Notes:
Spaghetti: You can also use penne or rigatoni in place of the spaghetti, if you prefer. As with the spaghetti, place the pasta on top of the meat mixture, cover with spaghetti sauce and don’t stir before pressure cooking. Onion and celery: Feel free to leave these out if you prefer. You can also use a chopped green pepper in place of the celery. ½ teaspoon dried onion powder added with the other seasoning is fine to use in place of the fresh. Spaghetti sauce: Just use your favorite jarred spaghetti sauce! I always use tomato basil. If you don’t want to use ready-made spaghetti sauce, please don’t substitute with canned diced tomatoes – they don’t yield the same result. You can use plain tomato sauce and season it with some salt, garlic powder, onion powder and dried basil, if you prefer. Broth: Beef broth makes this a little richer and “beefier”, chicken broth is milder. If you have neither, you can use water, but there will be a little less flavor.Cooking Tips:
Scrape the bottom: After browning the beef and vegetables, make sure you scrape the bottom of the instant pot to remove any stuck bits. Otherwise you might trigger the “burn” warning during pressure cooking. Do not stir! Really, you do not need to stir this before pressure cooking. Just follow the instructions closely and it will come out perfectly.Nutrition
Calories: 570kcal | Carbohydrates: 79g | Protein: 38g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 1951mg | Potassium: 1317mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 1219IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 6mg
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Sasha says
My family loves this recipe. The last two times I ran into issue with some of the noodles clumped together and not fully cooked. Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong and how to correct my error? I will pick up the clumped noodles so the dish is still delicious.
Nora says
Sasha, I’m not quite sure why this would happen, I never had an issue. Are you using regular spaghetti? Which brand? I’ll try to figure this out!
Susan Buzin says
I don’t usually make a lot of spaghetti at our house but the Instant Pot is changing all of that! This recipe is absolutely amazing! I did’t really think you could improve spaghetti but this simple recipe did. I do cook quite a bit in the Instant Pot and this will become one of my go-to dinners on a busy day or when the family is craving some comfort food.
The “doctoring” of the sauce makes a bottled jar taste homemade. I usually make meatballs but this meat sauce makes me think “Never again!” I do agree with another reviewer that the pasta needs to be pressed down a little to make sure it is mostly covered with the broth. It was a wee too much al dente for me but the flavor was amazing so who cares! The leftovers the next night might have been even better…
The days of putting sauce over pasta are OVER for me. When the pasta absorbs the broth and cooks with all of the yummy spices and onions in the Instant Pot, it will make you want to never boil another pot of water and waste time draining and dirtying a pan and a colander.
This recipe is now filed under “Favorites.” Thank you!
Carie says
My kids ate it! That makes it 5 star. Thank you!
Rachelle says
This was delicious. A couple of tips: Make sure to push the noodles down into the liquid (without stirring) or they won’t cook all the way. This happened to us and I didn’t realize it until after I had stirred it all up, so i put it back under pressure for another 2 minutes and that did the trick, but some stuck to the bottom. I think if you ensure the noodles are covered you’ll be fine and maybe let it natural release for a couple minutes so the steam cooks the noodles. But other than that little blooper it was absolutely delicious.
Bre says
I have never been a huge fan of spaghetti…so much so they for the first time in years, I purchased spaghetti noodles last week. I couldn’t remember what for, but then your recipe popped up and I knew I had to try it since I’m on a “try new things” kick…this recipe is SO GOOD! It’s also SO EASY! I literally put it all together and got ready for work and when I was done, the spaghetti was done! The spaghetti noodles were perfectly cooked and the sauce had amazing flavor! Definitely saving this in my “tried and true amazing recipes” board!
Nora Rusev says
Bre, I’m the same with spaghetti, but thanks to Peppa Pig my kids are obsessed with them, ha! So when I do actually share a spaghetti recipe, it has to be pretty much perfect for my taste 😉 I’m glad you gave it a try and enjoyed it as much as we do! Thanks for coming back to leave your review, I appreciate it so very much.
Tina says
Di after cooking?d you drain the hamburger after cooking?
Nora Rusev says
Tina, I don’t! We have quite lean ground beef we buy directly from a local farm, so it works well without draining. Feel free to drain if you prefer!