Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta (Bolognese) cooks up in under 30 minutes in the pressure cooker. Homemade sauced tastes like you have been simmering all day.
Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for PastaWe all love homemade spaghetti sauce that cooks all day on the stove.
With the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, you can have that same taste with just a 10 minute cook time.
Meat lovers, use some Italian Sausage and/or any other ground meat you would like in your sauce. I prefer a vegetarian sauce and this recipe is my favorite.
Cast of Ingredients for Instant Pot Beef and Macaroni
My husband loves this Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta with whole sausage and meatballs. I’ve never been a huge fan of meat sauce. I do, however, like to brown the sausage and meatballs and then remove them from the pot. Then continue with the rest of the ingredients. When we are ready to eat, I usually put the sausage and meatballs back into the pot to warm. The husband can take the meat with his meal and I grab some sauce. We both win.
However, sometimes I do just crumble up the sausage and/or ground beef/turkey and make this sauce.
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Special Ingredient for Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta
- Parmesan Rind
This makes all the difference. If you do not have a rind from a chunk of Parmesan cheese, no need to worry. You can always add in some cheese to your plate of spaghetti and sauce.
Break up the Meat, if Using
For cooking on the stove top, the sauce would simmer all day, but using an Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, your sauce is done in under 30 minutes. I’d have to stay home and stir and check on the sauce. It’s so great to get an all day pasta sauce in less than 30 minutes.
If you want to cook your noodles or macaroni at the same time as your sauce, try my Pressure Cooker Quick Spaghetti Dinner or my Pressure Cooker Beef and Macaroni for an easy one pot meal.
How to Make Stainless Steel Pot Non Stick
Turn on your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker and allow the pot to get completely hot. Adding a fat to a hot pot, will make the stainless steel pot non stick. If you add fat to a cold pot, your food will stick.
After the pot is hot, add your oil and start to brown the meat.
Brown Meat and Crush Fennel Seeds
Fennel seeds add huge amounts of flavor to this Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce. They are easy to crush with the back of a spoon. Just be careful so they don’t go flying across your kitchen.
You can also find fennel seeds in my Pressure Cooker Low Carb Margherita Meatballs, which are killer and perfect for a low carb diet. As a side dish, the Low Carb Brussels Sprouts Alfredo Sauce taste great in combination.
Roughly chop the onions and toss them into the pot. Continue to sauté for a few minutes.
Garlic is best when you only sauté for a very short time. So, add the garlic and sauté just one more minute.
Another very easy recipe to make is my Instant Pot Italian Chicken Marsala. It’s rich and is a great Italian entree.
Carefully add in the rest of the ingredients. Make sure you use a good wine. One that you would like to drink with your meal.
Never buy wine that is labeled for cooking. It is cheap and pretty nasty.
The wine adds a terrific depth of flavor and I suggest not skipping the wine.
Lock on the lid and you are ready to cook!
This makes a lot, so we freeze what we are not going to use for dinner and save for next time.
I love these Reditainer Extreme Freezer Containers and Freezer Labels, so that I always know what is in my freezer.
Makes a Great Freezer Meal
We like to use the leftover Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for in my Instant Pot Rojo Fiesta Chicken recipe in place of the fiesta sauce and turn it into another Italian meal.
Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta
Easy, right? Home made pasta sauce in not much more time than it takes to open a jar of premade sauce.
If you want to have a one pot spaghetti dinner, try my Pressure Cooker Quick Spaghetti Dinner or my Pressure Cooker Beef and Macaroni (Bolognese), for a one pot meal.
More Instant Pot Italian Meals to Make:
- Pressure Cooker Low Carb Margherita Pizza Meatballs
- Instant Pot Italian Chicken Marsala {Pressure Cooker}
- Pressure Cooker Creamy Baked Ziti
- Pressure Cooker Bruschetta Chicken with Zoodles
What is your favorite way to each Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce?
Kitchen Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Cilio Olivewood Spatula
- Rachael Ray Stoneware EVOO Oil Dispensing Bottle
- Porcelain & Bamboo Salt Box with Spoon
- Bellemain Porcelain Ramekins
- OXO Good Grips Cutting Board
- Reditainer Extreme Freezer Containers
- Freezer Labels
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Here is the handy printable recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 pounds Italian sausage mild or hot, (optional, casings removed)
- 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Yellow/Brown Onion optional, chopped
- 3 - 4 cloves Fresh Garlic minced
- 28 ounces Diced Tomatoes w/Juice
- 6 ounces Tomato Paste
- 30 ounces Tomato Sauce
- 3 teaspoons Dried Basil
- 2 teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
- 2 teaspoons Light Brown Sugar or sugar substitute
- 2 teaspoons Sea Salt
- 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- 1/2 cup Red Wine/Cabernet a good Cabernet!
- 1/2 cup Fresh Water
- 2 teaspoons fennel seeds crushed
- 1 chunk Parmesan Rind optional
Recommended Products
Instructions
With Meat
- Turn your Pressure Cooker to Sauté or Browning mode and allow it to heat.
- Add a Tablespoon of olive oil to the Pressure Cooker cooking pot and then dump in the sausage/ground beef.
- Brown the sausage, breaking it up as you stir.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
- Lock on Lid and Close Pressure Valve.
- Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. When Beep sounds, allow a 15 minute natural release, then carefully do a quick release.
Without Meat
- All add ingredients, except for meat and mix together.
- Lock on Lid and Close Pressure Valve.
- Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. When Beep sounds, allow a 15 minute natural release, then carefully do a quick release.
Notes
- Pressure Cooker Southern Style Green Beans
- Low Carb Avocado Chicken Salad [Instant Pot]
- Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup Low Carb Keto
- Instant Pot Italian Chicken Olive Garden
Nutrition
PIN this Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta!
Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Sauce for Pasta
This is the recipe I use the most with slight modifications. Can’t beat it!! My Italian mother would be so proud of me!! LOL!
Thank you, Jeanette. I am so glad you enjoy my recipe. Jill
This recipe is delicious!! My family loves it! I use 1 pound of ground beef and one pound of Italian Sausage. I also use this recipe when making lasagna. Jill, I always tell people that “you cook like I like to eat!!” ?
SORRY, almost forgot to tell you. I made this today for my Public Safety Guys on the road. They loved it as well. The wine made the difference! Soon as I brought that out the guys said “now you’re talking spaghetti sauce”! I actually 1 1/2’d the recipe and it turned out great. I also added a squash chopped I had in the fridge and a bell pepper. NEVER TOO MUCH FLAVOR!
Awesome, thank you. I am thrilled you enjoyed my recipe. Jill
I LOVED IT! I added ground beef… however it was just a tad but too thin for me. How can I thicken it up just a touch?
Thank you, Cathy. You could let is simmer a bit. Jill
Is the cook time the same if doubled?
Ann,
I made 1 1/2 today…. I only added a couple of min which really wasn’t necessary but I had added bell peppers. Actually it would have prob been better not to add any at all. NOTE TO SELF FOR NEXT TIME!
My husband declared this the best spaghetti sauce ever. Love the fennel seed.
Thank you, Mary. Jill
This sounds amazing.I have an 8 qt instant pot. Can this be doubled and what would the cook time be?
Yes, it can be doubled. Jill
I wanted to point out that the recipe at the end is not as detailed & is different than the directions in the rest of the blog. Since I often jump right to the recipe, I was wondering if you could update it.
Is the 405 calories for the whole pot of sauce?
Really?????? Come on. Think…….
Jill….this recipe is a winner in our house! “This is sooo good” is what I kept hearing. Thank you again for another fantastic meal! Patty
Thank you, Patricia. Jill
have made this sauce a couple of times, sooooooo good. Thank heaven for you Jill. You gave me confidence.
Thank you, Ginny. That is so sweet of you to say. I am so glad you feel better about cooking. Jill
I made meat sauce this afternoon. 10 minutes cook time and it tastes amazing–as good as the sauce I used to simmer on the stove all afternoon! I used 1 lb. lean ground beef and 1 lb. Hot Italian sausage meat. I omitted the fennel seeds and the dried hot peppers because the sausage meat contained enough of both for our taste. I would recommend waiting to add salt until after the sauce is done because the sausage already has some salt. And don’t hesitate to add that 1/2 c. of wine. It adds something special to the overall flavor. I added it to the browned meat and onions on saute so the alcohol could burn off, then added all the tomato stuff. This one’s a keeper for me!
Thank you, Susan. Jill
What kind of wine?
I’ve never made my own sauce before and too be honest, I wasn’t planning to this time either. I had a hankering for spaghetti and no sauce in the cupboard. Almost threw in the towel but decided what the heck, I’ve got all the ingredients let’s give this a whirl. Outcome? I am never buying my sauce again! This is amazing! I am low on tomato sauce ( someone around here REALLY needs to hit the grocery store!) but I’m going to make a run so I can make more and freeze it. So thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Jennie. It really is amazing how fast this comes together, yet tastes like it was simmering all day. Jill
Hello! I’ve tried a few of your recipes and loved them, going to make this tonight. Going for the meatless version and my cousin is visiting and hates onion so I’ll use onion powder. But I despise fennel- obviously I can leave it out but is there a trick to fishing it out or cooking in a cheese cloth for flavor only? Should I substitute anything for it? Thank you!
This recipe is excellent! I pull it out to impress dinner guest! It’s one of those recipes where you can hardly believe you made something so delicious. Thanks!
Thank you, Maxine. I am glad you enjoyed the sauce. Jill
Tried this tonight. It was really great. Thanks for the recipe!
Please tell me how this does not burn in the IP? It’s mainly tomatoes!! They burn in the IP. I’m dying to try this, but I don’t want to ruin my pot either. Have you had any experiences like this with your sauce?
The recipe says 30 ounces of tomato sauce then it says right next to it 15? Which is it?
I made this but substituted dried basil for fresh basil about 1 cup, put them after pressure release and closing the lid again and leaving it for about half an hour. Just because I had fresh ones. I’m a bit confused about the tomato sauce, put in about 6oz. Thank you so much Jill, we had the best pasta ever. Hubs never liked bolognese until I found this!
I have made this quite a few times now, yum! But making today for the first time without meat, as I have home made meatballs in the freezer (yay me). So yummy with or without the meat. My kids don’t like meaty sauce so meatballs may be the way to go! Thanks!
Hi Squeaky. Thanks for your comments. I prefer it without the meat as well. Jill
We always have this (like, once a week) now with the meatballs which can be frozen after baking then reheated in sauce! Big batch cook ahead meal and very very good!