This Instant Pot Spaghetti recipe is made with a delicious homemade meat sauce and is ready to eat in under 30 minutes!

Looking for more instant pot recipes? We have tons, from IP Short ribs to IP yogurt!

A close up photo of a white pasta bowl filled with spaghetti.

What I love:

  • One Pot Spaghetti makes for the easiest clean up!
  • Ready in under 30 minutes. The instant pot cooks the noodles, meat, and sauce all at once! Learn all of my instant pot tips and tricks!
  • Homemade sauce will make this a family favorite!

How to make Instant Pot Spaghetti:

  1. Brown the meat using the Instant pot sauté function. Drain grease and add onions and spices.
  2. Add pasta, breaking in half and placing on top.
  3. Make sauce by mixing crushed tomatoes and tomato paste together. Pour over noodles and add water.
  4. Cook on Manual for 5 minutes. Allow 5 minute natural release, and then turn valve to quick release.
  5. Toss and serve with fresh parmesan, crushed red pepper flakes (optional), and fresh chopped parsley.
Process photos for making instant pot spaghetti, including browning the meat at the bottom of the pot, adding the uncooked, pasta, topping with crushed tomatoes and then a photo of the final product after cooking.

Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:

To Make Ahead: The meat can be browned up to 2 days in advance.

To Freeze: Remove as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. Store in a freezer safe container or bag for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating. For best results, cook the spaghetti for only 3 minutes at high pressure, so the noodles don’t over cook when reheated, after freezing.

A pasta bowl full of Spaghetti made from the instant pot, garnished with parsley and parmesan.

Recipe Variations:

  • Instant Pot Bolognese: Add ½ pound diced pancetta, 1 diced carrot, and 1 diced celery rib when you brown the meat. Pour in ½ cup of red wine to deglaze the pot. Continue with the seasonings, crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste. Only add ½ cup of water. Pressure cook for 20 minutes with a natural release for 10 minutes, then quick release. Add more tomato paste and seasonings, if desired. Stir in ¼ cup heavy cream with fresh parmesan cheese. Boil noodles separately in pot on stove.
  • Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs: Instead of browning the meat, add cooked, frozen meatballs to the bottom of the pot first, then continue layering the ingredients as the recipe instructs. Or try my Instant Pot Penne and Meatballs.
  • Instant Pot Spaghetti without Meat: Skip the meat, and add the dry noodles in the bottom of the pot. Mix tomatoes and tomato paste together and pour over noodles. Add seasonings and water on top, then cook as directed in recipe.

Serve with:

Try my other Instant Pot Recipes:

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Recipe

A pasta bowl full of Spaghetti made from the instant pot, garnished with parsley and parmesan.
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 15 minutes
Total 25 minutes
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Ingredients
 
 

  • 1/2 pound lean ground beef
  • 1/2 pound ground Italian sausage
  • salt , pepper,
  • 1 small yellow onion , chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic , minced
  • 3 Tablespoons fresh basil leaves , chopped (2 teaspoons dried basil)
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder , sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
  • 8 ounces spaghetti noodles
  • 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese , for topping
  • fresh chopped parsley , chopped, for garnish
  • crushed red pepper flakes , optional, for garnish

Instructions
 

  • Set the Instant Pot to saute. Add the ground beef and sausage, and season well with salt and pepper.
  • Cook the meat, breaking the meat up into pieces until it’s browned. Drain grease.
  • (At this point I like to put the meat in my food processor and pulse it 2-3 times to break it up into very small pieces. I think it makes the sauce smoother and yummier. Then add it back to the IP. This step is completely optional).
  • Add onion to the pot and cook until tender, 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the garlic, garlic powder, sugar, Italian seasonings, red wine vinegar.
  • Turn the Instant Pot off.
  • Break the spaghetti noodles in half and place on top of meat mixture.
  • Stir together the crushed tomato and tomato paste and pour over the noodles.
  • Add water.
  • Push the spaghetti down with a spoon if necessary to make they are submerged.
  • Seal the instant pot and set it to manual mode, high pressure, 5 minutes cooking time.
  • When the time is up, allow pressure to naturally release for 5 minutes, and then do a quick release. I place a towel over the quick release spout to catch the steam.
  • Open IP and gently toss everything together.
  • Serve warm topped with fresh parmesan, crushed red pepper flakes, and fresh chopped parsley.

Notes

Make Ahead Instructions: The meat can be browned up to 2 days in advance.
Freezing Instructions: Remove as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. Store in a freezer safe container or bag for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating. For best results, cook the spaghetti for only 3 minutes at high pressure, so the noodles don’t over cook when reheated, after freezing.
Try my other Instant Pot Recipes!

Nutrition

Calories: 380kcalCarbohydrates: 41gProtein: 21gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 52mgSodium: 523mgPotassium: 779mgFiber: 4gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 420IUVitamin C: 15.9mgCalcium: 78mgIron: 3.9mg

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Have you tried this recipe?! 

RATE this recipe and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.

I originally shared this recipe February 2018. Updated May 2021.

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About The Author

Lauren Allen

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.

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Comments

  1. 4 stars
    I’ve tried this recipe twice – loved the simplicity of this home cooked comfort food. Learned a couple of things: first, you have to let it naturally depressurize for five minutes, as the recipe states, before manually releasing the rest of the pressure (I missed that step the first time and live at high altitude). That’s critical for the spaghetti to cook all the way. Second, if the spaghetti is still not cooked, it’s fast to repressurize for another couple of minutes, and then things are perfect. This is pretty yummy, especially for a weeknight.

  2. Like others have mentioned, I followed the recipe, and half the noodles were stuck together. I wasn’t crazy about the seasonings either…

  3. 5 stars
    This was very good! I used bratwurst chunks so put the spices in the sauce instead of on top of the meat. I ended up with more sauce than I needed and we ran out of spaghetti for us 5 (4 littles). It was just enough for us but I hope next time it will double well!

  4. Noodles didn’t not cook through and about half of them stuck together. Had to finish it on the stovetop and try to pull the noodles apart. Wasn’t completely sure what the measurement was supposed to be for the sugar as it was listed with the garlic powder. I started off with a 1/2 tsp and ended up adding another 1/2 tsp to cut a little more of the acidity. Over all, pretty good flavor. Don’t know if I will be trying it again.

  5. 5 stars
    I thought this recipe was very easy and delicious! I made it exactly as it was! I love how easily I can adapt it next time although I probably won’t be making any changes. Thanks for another excellent recipe!!!

  6. 4 stars
    Great recipe. I felt it was a little light on the seasonings. I will double them next time. I am a little perplexed about you calorie counts. Did you forget the decimal or did you not mean kcal?

  7. I’m wondering how I could do this with the meat, then add jar of spaghetti sauce..I’m assuming I would still have to add 1 cup of water so the noodles would cook.

  8. 5 stars
    Please mention adding the basil in step 5. I used ground turkey and turkey Italian sausage instead of the meats mentioned. Also used fresh basil in place of parsley for the garnish. We only got about 4 servings out of this.

  9. 5 stars
    This was an excellent spaghetti recipe, which I followed exactly. My husband, who doesn’t like spaghetti, said it was the best ever and could I make it again the same way! I tried another recipe last night, and he said that’s not the same as the last time you made it, and he doesn’t want any other recipe again!

  10. 4 stars
    Overall it ended up good but my spaghetti did not cook through for some reason. I actually thought 5 minutes was going to be too much! I ended up putting the IP in sauté and sort of boiled the noodles for a few more minutes. Other than that, the recipe had great flavor.

  11. Tried the meatloaf … great cooking time! When adding sea seasoning do i need to add more of each!! Everything i cook taste blane

    1. I added extra seasonings here to try and combat that (I feel like the pressure cooker does do that), so try it as is, and if it tastes bland you can always add extra seasoning at the end.

  12. 5 stars
    Excellent recipe! I added 1/4 pound of fully cooked, seasoned pulled pork to make it like a Sunday gravy recipe, and it was delicious!!!

  13. I made this today. Some of th noodles stuck together. I think next time I’ll make the sauce in the Instant Pot and the spaghetti on the stove. The time is the same, and the spaghettiwill taste better. Just sayin.

  14. Deglaze is the term you are looking for. Also this should be more than enough liquid to operate the pressurization process. I often use only about a cup and it works fine.

  15. Looking forward to trying this tonight! Can we increase the amount of pasta to a full box? If so, will that affect the amount of water in the recipe? Thank you!

  16. 4 stars
    The result was great because the Spaghetti was VERY good. However, I received a
    “burned” warning on my Instant Pot.
    Maybe because the meat was sticking to the pot. Have you experienced this problem ?

    1. Thank you. It looks like I had an error in my comment. I meant to say whole tomatoes. Will that still work?

  17. I’m having trouble every single time I make this with my pot shutting off. It will not come to pressure. The manufacturer says that it is because there is not enough liquid in it. No one else is having that trouble. I have added upwards of 5 cups and it still shuts off. It comes out OK, but any ideas why this happens?

    1. If you fried meat first any stuff stuck on bottom may inhibit pressure building. Scrap it loose with some liquid. Process has a name of which I forget

  18. 5 stars
    This was amazing! Thank you for this. I used two smaller cans of unsalted diced tomatoes that I whirred in my blender a bit with the tomato paste and had to guess at the amount of pasta since my boxes of Smart Taste spaghetti are 12 oz but ti came out really good. I added salt to taste afterwards. Will be making spaghetti this way from now on.

  19. My first time making spaghetti in the Instant Pot Vive. I used some of the ingredients in your recipe, but I also put in fresh mushrooms & green pepper in to it. I also used a can of Hunts Spaghetti Sauce, I used one cup of water and some of the noodles came out ok & a little hard. So I think I’m gonna us 2 cups of water next time and plus I used a 12oz. of Veggie Pasta (which was Tomato & Carrot). Or next time I’ll make it with all of your ingredients instead of the can of pasta sauce. I’m gonna try your other recipes, which they sounds really good. Thanks!!

  20. I made this the other night. I didn’t have sausage so used all ground beef. After I browned the meat, I used an old fashion potato masher to break it up vs the food processor. The taste was really good; however, it was too dry. Next time I’ll doubke the sauce part.

  21. 5 stars
    Used Dell Grosso pasta sauce and a splash of beer and it was delicious but a little dry, might add diced tomatoes next time.

  22. 5 stars
    I made your recipe last night and it was absolutely delicious! The only thing I added was some cream cheese, about 3 tablespoons, at the very end TDF!! Thank you!

  23. 4 stars
    I made this with about 7-8 oz. elbow macaroni, a 24 oz. can of Hunt’s spaghetti sauce and 1 1/4 cups water. I cooked it 9 minutes in the instant pot with a five minute rest before releasing pressure. It was very good. The pasta was al dente. If you prefer mushier noodles, I would increase water to 1 1/2 cups and increase cooking time to 11 minutes. Also, I used only about half a pound of cooked sausage, and I sauteed about two cups of chopped veggies ( combination of onions, green pepper, and fresh mushrooms) before adding the remaining ingredients (meat, sauce, pasta, water). My hisband loved it! We served it with shredded mozzarella and a green salad.

  24. 4 stars
    It was an easy kid friendly recipe. The noodles where not over cooked. I made it with hot Italian sausage, extra seasoning and cheese. Found it rather bland.
    I’ll try the recipe again. I was afraid that I wouldn’t like the sauce cooked with the pasta but that was good quick and less clean up.
    Any body just make it with regular pasta sauce with added water?

  25. 5 stars
    This was my first time using the Instant Pot. The recipe was perfect for an “Instant Pot” beginner and was absolutely delicious! I did increase the time by three minutes based on reviews, used only ground beef, a sugar substitute and added shredded carrots. Thanks for a wonderful one-pot recipe! I will definitely check out your other recipes.

  26. 5 stars
    I was really surprised on how much I liked this as I don’t like my pasta soaked in sauce. The only thing I changed was I used all ground beef as I didn’t have pork and I added a chopped carrot and omitted the sugar. It turned out awesome. Ohhh and I did do it for 8 minutes becuae the pasta wasn’t cooked in 5 min.

  27. Can you make this without adding the noodles? My husband hates having them mixed together. I’m not that fussy, but he is. It sounds like there’s are issues with the pasta sticking. I’d prefer to boil my spaghetti separately. Thanks

  28. 5 stars
    Game changer! I love that you can do it all in one pot and the homemade sauce was great! I can already tell this will be a go-to recipe. Thanks.

  29. Hi! I see some have used the McCormick packs which is what I have. Did you is paste or tomato sauce with it in addition to water? And, should I premake the sauce in a skillit before starting the instant pot or will it make the sauce on its own?
    #instantpotnewbie

  30. 5 stars
    Excellent recipe, very tasty and easy to make. This was the first use of my new Instant Pot, which is a 3-quart mini. (Recipe is best made in a 6-quart pot.) Somehow, it worked in my mini even after the Burned warning flashed on. The unit turned off, and I quickly scooped the spaghetti out into a serving bowl. Perfectly cooked al dente pasta. Sheer luck! Next time I will halve the recipe.

  31. This was my first time making spaghetti in the instant pot and first time making my own sauce…big hit everyone loved it even my husband who doesn’t really care for spaghetti – thank you for the recipe!

  32. 4 stars
    I made this and I have to say the flavor was excellent. I did have to cook it a little longer. I think next time I will toss the noodles in olive oil before cooking to keep them from sticking together and up the time to 8 min high pressure and 5 min natural release. Recipe though other than cook time in my instapot was on point!

    1. 5 stars
      Lay your spaghetti noodles in a criss-cross pattern instead of all facing the same direction. This method will eliminate most of the clumping.