Instant Pot Spaghetti is ready in 30 minutes but tastes like it simmered on the stove all afternoon. The noodles cook right in a sauce made with ground beef, sautéed onion, and fresh garlic, so they soak up all that flavor. It’s all made in one pot, with no boiling and no draining!
Instant pot spaghetti has saved my sanity more than once!
Spaghetti night used to mean standing over the stove watching for water to boil, browning the meat, and dirtying up a colander. The instant pot changed that!
The beef browns, the noodles cook, and the sauce thickens all in the same pot. You stir it once at the end, let it sit for five minutes, and it turns into the sauciest spaghetti. Then you wash exactly one pot and call it a night.
Most instant pot spaghetti recipes use plain water and a shake of garlic powder. I use chicken broth, and I start with real onion and garlic sautéed with the ground beef right in the pot.
It takes barely any more effort, but adds a ton more flavor. The noodles drink up the broth and sauce while they cook, so the flavor is IN the pasta instead of just sitting on top of it!
— ♥︎ Jess —
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Pot-Size Spaghetti – These noodles are cut to about six inches, so they fit the inner pot without breaking. Ronzoni and Barilla both make them. Regular spaghetti works fine, you just snap it in half first.
- Marinara Sauce – Use your favorite, homemade marinara sauce or store-bought, it’s up to you. Rao’s or Carbone are my go-to jarred options. They have good savory flavor and aren’t sweet.
- Ground Beef – I use 90/10 so there’s almost no grease to drain. You can swap in any ground meat you prefer, but if it has a higher fat content, you will need to drain the grease.
- Diced Tomatoes – They keep the sauce from tasting one note and add a little bite of texture. Fire roasted diced tomatoes are a great swap!
How To Make Instant Pot Spaghetti
Visit the recipe card below for the ingredient amounts and full directions.
Sauté the aromatics. Set the pot to sauté, add the olive oil, and cook the onion until it turns see-through. Stir in the garlic and seasonings for 30 seconds. This is the step most recipes skip. Two minutes of work and the sauce tastes like it simmered for hours!
Brown the beef. Break it up as it cooks. Turn sauté off and drain any excess grease, if needed.
Deglaze. Pour in a splash of the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean with a wooden spoon.
Layer, do not stir. Criss-cross the spaghetti on top of the meat. Pour the rest of the broth around it, then the sauce and diced tomatoes right on top. Press the noodles under the liquid.
Pressure cook. Lock the lid, seal the valve, and cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
Quick release and rest. Vent the steam right away. Stir well and let it sit 5 minutes so the noodles drink up the extra liquid. Then it’s ready to dig in and enjoy!
Jessica’s Tips
- Criss-cross the noodles instead of dropping them in one handful. Add them a few at a time, laying each batch in a different direction. This is the single best thing you can do to stop them cooking into one solid clump!
- Deglaze before the pasta goes in. After the beef browns, pour in a splash of the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Stuck-on bits down there are what trigger the burn warning.
- Push every single noodle under the liquid. Any strand poking out will come out stiff and chalky. Use the back of a spoon and press them down before you lock the lid.
- Quick release, every time. A natural release keeps cooking the pasta with carryover heat. Those extra minutes are the whole difference between tender noodles and mushy ones.
- Expect it to look soupy when the lid comes off. It’s supposed to. Stir it well, then walk away for 5 minutes. The noodles will pull that liquid right in and the sauce turns glossy and thick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Something thick was touching the bottom of the pot. Almost always it is either browned bits left over from the beef or tomato sauce that got stirred in. Deglaze with a splash of broth and scrape the bottom clean after browning, then layer the sauce and diced tomatoes on top of everything else and leave them there. If it does flash the burn message, quick release, scrape the bottom, add a 1/3 cup more broth, and start the cook time again.
In an 8 quart pot, yes. Double everything and keep the cook time at 8 minutes, since pressure cooking time does not scale with volume. In a 6 quart pot, don’t double it. A full pound of pasta plus all that liquid is already close to the max fill line, and going over it can block the steam valve.
Yes. Skip the beef, use vegetable broth, and cut the broth by about 2 ounces since there is no meat soaking it up.
Yes. Put the frozen block in the pot with a cup of the broth, pressure cook for 5 minutes, quick release, then break it up and drain. Brown it on sauté with the onion and garlic from there and continue with the recipe.
Instant Pot Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb lean ground beef, or ground turkey
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 lb pot-size spaghetti noodles, or break regular sized spaghetti in half
- 1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce
- 12 oz low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- grated Parmesan cheese, optional garnish
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Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté. Add the olive oil to the inner pot, then add the onion and cook until it starts to turn translucent. Add the garlic, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning. Cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the ground beef. Cook, breaking the meat up as you go, until it is completely browned. Turn off the sauté setting. Drain any excess grease if necessary (a tablespoon or two is fine and adds flavor).
- Pour in a splash of the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon until there are no stuck-on bits left.
- Lay the spaghetti on top of the meat mixture, adding it in a few small batches and crisscrossing the directions. Pour the remaining chicken broth around the noodles, then add the marinara sauce and diced tomatoes right on top. Push the spaghetti down with a spoon so it is fully covered in liquid. Do not stir.
- Lock the lid on and set the steam release knob to sealing. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook (manual) for 8 minutes. Press start if your pot requires it. The pot will take several minutes to come to pressure, then the cook time will begin.
- When the cook time finishes, turn off the Instant Pot and do a quick release by turning the steam release knob to venting.
- Stir the spaghetti well and let it rest for 5 minutes to absorb the liquids. Serve immediately topped with Parmesan cheese as desired.
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