Instant Pot Spaghetti Recipe

Of all the things you could make for dinner, there's nothing more universally loved than spaghetti. Children and adults relish in the simple pasta dish, and it's pretty easy to see why. The combination of tender noodles along with a rich tomato sauce is pretty hard to beat, and it gets even better when that tomato sauce has some meat or veggies loaded in. Top it off with Parmesan cheese, and you've got a classic and delicious meal!

Recipe developer Susan Olayinka of The Flexible Fridge loves a good spaghetti dish, though she knows that it can be time consuming to whip it up from scratch. Luckily, with her Instant Pot spaghetti recipe, you can have a hot and nourishing meal in record time — we're talking less than 30 minutes! "As a busy mom, any meal that I can do in one [pot] is an absolute winner," Olayinka says. "The fact that this is made in one appliance and doesn't require much babysitting is gold." Indeed, this dish does build entirely within the Instant Pot, and then you just leave it to do all the work. It doesn't get much easier than that, so let's jump into this easy weeknight recipe.

Much like any spaghetti recipe, you'll need some basic ingredients to build the dish. For this recipe, you'll need spaghetti noodles, olive oil, ground beef, passata or tomato sauce, chicken stock, diced tomatoes, salt, and fresh basil for garnish. As for ingredient substitutions, Olayinka notes that there is some wiggle room with your meat of choice. "Ground turkey or pork would do," she explains, adding that you could even opt for a plant-based option as well.

To begin this recipe, you'll want to do a little bit of dicing and slicing. Grab the shallot and dice it up, then slice the basil. With those tasks out of the way, you can turn your attention to the Instant Pot. Turn it on to high sauté mode for 12 minutes. Add the oil in, followed by the diced shallot. Allow the shallot to cook for 2 minutes, then add the beef in, allowing it to cook for 8 more minutes. You'll know the beef is mostly cooked once it has browned and all of the pink is gone.

Once the shallot and meat have had time to cook, you can continue building the spaghetti dish. Add in the salt and passata and allow the mix to cook for a minute. Now, grab your spaghetti noodles, break them in half horizontally, and place them into the sauce. Spread the spaghetti out so all of it is submerged in the sauce. Finally, pour the chicken stock in, followed by the diced tomatoes. You may be tempted to stir everything, but Olayinka advises to resist that urge. "Be careful not to stir the raw spaghetti," she explains. "It'll result in a mushy pasta."

You're ready to let the Instant Pot work its magic. Put the lid onto the pot and pressure cook on high for 7 minutes. Once that time is up, do a quick release on the valve, letting all the pressure out. As a last step, stir in the chopped basil, then you're ready to serve and enjoy!

This spaghetti is a full meal on its own, though Olayinka notes that "garlic bread or a garden salad" are good pairing options. However you enjoy this dish, we think you'll relish in the fact that it takes less than a half hour to whip up, and thanks to one-pot cooking, it's easy clean up, too!