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Instant Pot Spaghetti

This is one of our go-to weeknight dinners. It’s a super easy, one-pot meal. Pay attention to the tips for keeping the burn setting from kicking in.

This recipe is written for an 8 quart Instant Pot. It makes enough for a dinner for a family of six with leftovers. If you have a smaller Instant Pot, or just don’t want that much food, cut the recipe in half.

Saute 2 pounds of ground beef on the Saute setting until browned.

Add 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper.

Add chopped onions and garlic if desired.

Once the beef is browned, gather 3 – 24 oz. jars of your favorite pasta sauce. Add one jar and stir to mix with the ground beef. Add the 2 remaining jars but do NOT stir.

Next add 2 pounds of spaghetti to the Instant Pot. Take the spaghetti from the box in small handfuls, breaking the pasta in half lengthwise and alternating directions as you lay them in. For example, lay one handful in one direction, and lay the next handful in the other direction so that they are crossing alternating perpendicular to each other. DO NOT STIR the spaghetti into the pasta sauce. You want the spaghetti to be on top, and the sauce on the bottom so that the pasta does not stick and activate the Burn setting.

At this point you could also add in chopped vegetables, like carrots or bell peppers, on top of the noodles if you wanted more of a Ragu sauce.

Next fill your 3 spaghetti sauce jars with water, and shake to loosen all the extra sauce on the sides, and pour the 3 jars of water over the pasta. The pasta does not have to be submerged in the liquid, but it is a good idea to try to moisten all of it as you pour the water over it. Once again DO NOT STIR.

Lock the lid on the pot, seal the valve, and set for High Pressure for 2 minutes. Quick release, and stir to mix.

Enjoy your one pot meal!

4 thoughts on “Instant Pot Spaghetti”

  1. Only 2 minutes? do you use thin spaghetti? I’ve seen 10-20 minutes elsewhere. Or is it because everything is hot from browning the beef? Thanks! I’m trying to refine this for my pot.

    • Yes. Only 2 minutes. I do regular spaghetti. The beef is cooked already. All you need to do is cook the pasta. Pasta on it’s own cooks in 2-4 minutes in the IP. If you did longer than that it would turn to mush. I could see longer if you were using the Saute or Slow Cook setting. But it doesn’t take that long on the High Pressure setting.

    • I haven’t. I’m not sure rice noodles would hold up well to the pressure in the IP. I think the Ancient Harvest brand that has quinoa, corn, or lentil flour might. You could also try the GF pastas, especially ones with rice, on Low Pressure and see how that turns out. I never had good success with cooking rice based pasta. The Ancient Harvest brand was always our favorite.

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