The Best Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce recipe ever! Perfectly cooked pasta, delicious ground beef, or turkey tomato sauce and all ready in under 30 minutes in a true one-pot meal! If you are looking for an easy weeknight dinner, this easy spaghetti recipe is for you!
Our instant pot has been our lifesaver lately. It is quick, easy and makes family friendly meals! Want to know more about How to Use Your Instant Pot or some other The Best Instant Pot recipes? We have you covered! (Don’t miss our Instant Pot Lasagna recipe – you will never make it in the oven again!)
The Best Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Recipe
This Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce is bursting with amazing flavors and can be ready in just about 20 minutes! Not to mention, it is truly a one pot recipe!
That’s right this great recipe has the spaghetti and meat sauce all in one pot! With many spaghetti and meat sauce recipes, you are using a pot to boil the water, another to brown the meat and another to heat the sauce. When you make your pasta in an Instant Pot you can truly do it all in on pot! This makes your clean up a snap!
This spaghetti recipe makes about 10 servings, so be prepared for some yummy leftovers! I think pasta usually is even better the next day!
The leftovers (if there are any) are also great for school lunches. Throw them in a container and have your kids heat them up in the microwave the next day. Pasta and meat sauce is one of my kids favorite lunches!
Tips to Make Spaghetti in an Instant Pot
I know, you are probably asking yourself how will this taste? I can’t cook the pasta and the sauce together in one pot. The pasta will come out mushy. Not true! I was worried about that as well and it was perfect. Pressure cooking is truly my new obsession!
- Make sure you break the spaghetti noodles in half
- Push down on the pasta so it is submerged in the sauce and water
- Rule of thumb is the cook time would be half of the time recommended on the box when cooking it in the Instant Pot
- To prevent pasta from sticking, add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil
What is the difference between an Instant Pot and a Pressure Cooker?
Basically the Instant Pot is a brand of multifunctional electric pressure cookers. Don’t get me wrong…they are not your grandmother’s pressure cookers. I was always terrified of the steam exploding in my face! These new versions are multi-cookers that can do the job of a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, and more! They have self-regulating safety features to monitor the temperature and amount of pressure, making them much more user friendly.
If you are looking for the one that we use, we love this one (affiliate) Instant Pot 6 Quart version. We find it easy really easy to use!
Can you substitute ground turkey for the ground beef?
Yes, you can easily substitute ground turkey for our instant pot spaghetti with meat sauce (honestly, I substitute it all of the time for pasta, tacos and so many other recipes and my family never can tell the difference.
Using ground turkey is a healthier alternative if you are trying to watch you waist line and avoid red meat. It will still be delicious!
What to serve with this Easy Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
- Cauliflower Bread Sticks
- Bacon and Feta Green Beans
- Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad
- Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread
Some other quick weeknight dinner recipes that we love are Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas and Instant Pot Chicken Scampi. Both recipes are made in the Instant Pot (aka Pressure Cooker) and my family loves them!
Check out our Instant Pot Chicken Wings too! They are great for parties or an easy weeknight dinner!
Also, be sure to try some of our Instant Pot Desserts too! That’s right, you can make desserts right in the instant pot!
Great Instant Pot Desserts
Instant Pot Spaghetti with Meat Sauce recipe
Ingredients
- ½ yellow onion chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 16 ounce package spaghetti noodles uncooked and broken in half
- 1 24 ounce jar marinara sauce or tomato sauce 24 oz
- 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 3 cups water
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to saute. When it reads HOT, add the olive oil and onion.
- Continue to cook the onions until slightly soft
- Add the meat, Italian seasoning, salt, garlic powder, pepper, red pepper flakes, and minced garlic.
- Cook the meat until no pink remains, stirring frequently
- Hit CANCEL.
- Add a little water used to deglaze the bottom of the pot.
- Break spaghetti strands in half. Layer the spaghetti strands on top of meat in a criss-cross pattern.
- Pour marinara sauce over pasta.
- Pour diced tomatoes over sauce.
- Pour water around sides and on top of tomatoes.
- Push down lightly with the spatula to make sure water gets through layers and all pasta is covered.
- Cover with lid.
- Turn valve to SEALING, press PRESSURE COOK (or Manual on some models).
- Set cook time to 5 minutes
- When cooking is done, let pressure do a natural release for 5 minutes,
- Hit CANCEL.
- Do a quick release until pin drops
- Open lid, and stir spaghetti and meat sauce together well before serving
have not try any yet
Just doing a little back-of-the envelope math here, the entire recipe supposedly has 830 kcal (83 per service x 10 servings), based upon what is listed here on 8/22/20. The pasta alone in this recipe has twice that many kcal – 1 lb. of pasta has ~1600 kcal. Something isn’t right here.
OMGOSH – you are totally correct! I swapped out the recipe card a while back and the nutritional information for some reason didn’t update! Thank you so much for catching that and making me aware!! Please note, the nutritional info will always depend on what brands you use, but it should be a gauge at least! Thank you again!
I don’t have the Manual button. So if you pressure cook, do you set the pressure on low or high? Anxious to try this.
Made this tonight and it was delicious. Some of my noodles did clump together and came out hard, any suggestions for no clumping and no sticking together?
I have used your recipe repeatedly and I want everyone to know that this recipe is No Fail if you follow it and don’t try changing it up! Yes, I’ve done things like adding chopped bell peppers (multi-color, whatever I had on hand) and it still came out perfect! I recommended it to a friend & she complained that her pasta stuck together…I went they the recipe w/ her & sure enough, she left out the can of tomatoes! Whaaa?! Follow it & this recipe ROCKS! Thanks, Princess!
Thank you SO much! If you follow it, it will work!!! Love your comments and really appreciate it!
Your instructions are so simple to follow! Thanks for the details.
Your instructions are so simple to follow! Thanks for the details.
I’ve been trying to find more instant pot recipes – so happy to have stumbled across this! I love that everything is cooked in one pot. This is so easy!