Cheesy Ninja Foodi spaghetti will become your new favorite dinner using both your pressure cooker and air fryer functions! Baked spaghetti in a snap!! If you’re new and looking for Foodi recipes for your new machine we have them and pasta with jar sauce is where to start.
How do you make Ninja Foodi spaghetti you ask?? The BEST pasta you’ll ever try in your new fancy kitchen appliance! This is it! Our cheesy Ninja Foodi spaghetti recipe has it all. A one pot dinner with tender noodles and melted cheese on the top. If you’ve never had baked spaghetti before this is how you’ve gotta make it. Baking in the oven is so 2014. ๐ (affiliate links present)
How to Make Ninja Foodi Spaghetti
Are you obsessed with your pressure cooker and air fryer too??!! I made Instant Pot spaghetti years ago and it was a hit. Not only with my family but everyone else who tried it. But NOW there’s a new player in town and they can melt that ooey gooey cheese I love right on the top without having to transfer it into a dish and in the oven.
First – Let’s start with some helpful tips: Now once you’ve tried our cheesy Ninja Foodi spaghetti just go to our tab at the top and find more to try. Then let us know which one was your favorite!
If you too are obsessed with your pressure cooker and air fryer machine, here are a few resource to start with:
- You can bookmark our Ninja air fryer recipes page, we add to that weekly.
- Here’s an air fryer cooking times chart here for your fridge.
- Be sure to save this link to Instant Pot recipes for beginners too. You can use any of those in your pot too.
- Grab a set of wooden utensils to work with. They are great so your pot doesn’t get scratched!
- Then join our Facebook group where you can share and find more ideas you’ll love. Thousands of others share easy recipe ideas.
How much water do I put in my Ninja Spaghetti?
You only need 2 cups of water or broth because the jar of spaghetti sauce has liquid in it too. I’m sure that’s how you used to make baked spaghetti but after you try it this way I guarantee it will be a game changer for y’all too! These are the ingredients you will need:
- 1/2 lb. of hot ground sausage + 1/2 lb. regular – or ground beef
- the sausage combo is the bomb!!
- Onion
- Olive oil
- Spaghetti noodles or you can use penne
- Jar of spaghetti sauce – we use this pasta sauce
- Water or broth
- Mozzarella cheese
- Parmesan cheese if desired
- Green onion is optional, and red pepper flakes too if you want it spicy
- Garlic salt and Italian seasonings are good too
Here’s a peek of how to cook pasta in Ninja Foodi step by step with pictures. First off you are going to use the pressure cooker function. This means the lid that is NOT attached is the one you want. What you want to remember when cooking Pressure Cooker Pasta is make sure it is submerged into the liquid or sauce for best results.
How to cook spaghetti in a Ninja Foodi
This is no different than in any other pressure cooker. The difference comes at the end when you melt and lightly brown the cheese on top. That is a game changer y’all!! You just brown the meat, pour in the sauce and liquid, break up the noodles to submerge and cook!
Yes I have other pots and yes I have been using them for years but in order to do this in prior years I had to dirty a baking dish. Transferring everything into a pan, preheating the oven, and waiting for the broil setting to do the work. Not anymore! I love one one pot spaghetti.
Can you cook noodles in tomato sauce?
Absolutely! We actually prefer it now. They soak up the flavors and you can adjust for how al dente you’d like them. You can make it like our Lazy One Pot Spaghetti on the stove this way too. The 9 minute cook time I share here is perfect we say but if you like firmer noodles set to 7 or 8.
About double. If you are just cooking pasta in a Ninja Foodi with water you would add 1 cup noodles to 2 cups of liquid. Broth will have more flavor than water but spaghetti sauce is even better!! Next time try 1.5 cup of sauce + 1 cup of water + 2 cups of spaghetti noodles broken up into thirds so they are submerged to make Ninja Foodi spaghetti!! As long as they are covered they will boil perfectly
Once you have made this you will see how easy it is, and get the feel of the ratio between the two like you’ll need for our Ninja Foodi macaroni and cheese recipe too.
Ninja Foodi Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
If you’d rather make homemade spaghetti sauce you’re free to do so, just use 24 oz in total. I typically use jarred just because I don’t have the time to put it all together but either way is great.
- Saute the onions, salts, and ground meat together until the pink is almost all gone.
- If you’re using ground beef you can leave a touch of pink but if I’m using pork Ninja Foodi sausage I cook it all the way through. It will continue to cook in the pressure cooking process too though so don’t stress about it too much.
- Turn your pot off when this is done. This gives the pot a chance to cool off a bit.
- Spread your meat on the bottom so it’s evenly spread across.
- Pour your sauce evenly across that.
- Then fill that spaghetti sauce bottle with your water or broth. Put your lid back on and shake. You’ll be able to get the rest of the sauce out this way, I hate to waste.
- This liquid will be poured into your pot now but do NOT stir anything.
- Grab 1/2 of your noodles out of a 16 oz. box (that is how I measure, seriously) and break them into thirds.
- SPRINKLE pasta in the pot. If you throw them in as one big chunk they will come out as one big chunk, not separated.
- Gently submerge noodles with a spoon. Do NOT stir.
- Then close your lid and steam valve and set to pressure high pressure for 9 minutes. Quick release at the end.
If you wanted to pair this with our Ninja Foodi bone-in chicken thighs, that is a healthy choice. Kids though love chicken nuggets with this. Game changer and so much better than in the oven.
Yes, you could serve it up right then……but it gets WAY better!! In the recipe card below you can go all the way with the browned mozzarella on top or stop once the noodles are tender, that is totally up to you.
Can you cook spaghetti in an air fryer?
Not entirely. You would need to boil the noodles first, toss with the sauce and then follow the air fryer portion to melt the cheese. Looking for other air fryer recipes? We have lots but pasta is a tricky one for sure.
- Stir in 1 cup of mozzarella and let that melt.
- Next you’ll want to sprinkle in 1 more cup of cheese on the top. I use a mix of mozzarella and parmesan but use whatever you love.
- Use the air crisp lid for 4-5 minutes to melt that cheese and lightly brown it.
- Voila!! Done to perfection.
The pressure cooker Mexican casserole we make is similar to this one. You make the pasta and then melt cheese on top. I’d try that next. Then make our Ninja Foodi taco pasta.
To add meat we have Ninja Foodi chicken recipes here that you can pair with it, it is better than combining it all together.
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Cheesy Ninja Foodi Spaghetti
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker ninja foodi
Ingredients
- 1 lb spicy ground sausage, or ground beef
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce, 24 oz.
- 2 c water, or beef broth
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1.5 c mozzarella cheese , grated
- 1/2 c parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 green onion, diced, optional
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 oz spaghetti noodles, 1/2 a regular size 16 oz. box, broken into thirds
Instructions
- Press saute on Foodi and add in your olive oil, diced onions, salts and ground sausage or beef. Cook until meat is no longer pink. Then turn off pot.
- Spread cooked meat out on the bottom of your pot evenly so it covers it entirely.
- Pour in your jar of spaghetti sauce. Then pour in 2 c. of water or broth into your jar. Put lid back on and shake to get out remaining sauce. Pour this liquid into your pot. Do NOT stir.
- Break your noodles into thirds, equal size pieces. Sprinkle them into your pot on top of the liquid.
- Use a spoon to gently submerge them into the liquid but do NOT stir.
- Put pressure cooker lid on and close steam valve.
- Set to pressure cook, high for 9 minutes.
- Do a quick release and remove lid. Stir in 1 c. of mozzarella cheese so it melts.
- Then sprinkle on the remaining 1/2 c. of mozzarella cheese + parmesan on to the top of your spaghetti. Can add diced green onions now.
- Close your air fryer lid. Press air crisp 400 degrees for 5 minutes so it melts and gets golden brown on the top!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
will it still do good to keep on warm when its done or heat it up later?
I will only keep it plugged in kept on warm for 20 minutes or so after serving. If you continue with that the sauce will dry out the noodles and start to stick to the pot. Instead I unplug the pot so it no longer heats period and just leave the top on.
@heather, Yaaaaaaaaas girl!!! Iโve been making this recipe for over a year and itโs delicious the night of or the next day!
Donโt you drain grease out after cooking meat?
You can, many times mine is so lean that there is little to none so I don’t bother
@The Typical Mom, you can get pre cut noodles. I use that. Prevents noodles flying everywhere. You know i love noodles stuck together so good with cheese
This is the only way I make my spaghetti now! But I do wonder, has anyone made this with meatballs instead of ground meat? I love the recipe as is, but hubby wanted to try meatballs next time.
You can totally throw frozen meatballs into the bottom and then follow the rest of the instructions, it will be just fine.
I went in a 7 day family road trip, couldnโt stand the thought of eating out that much. Brought my ninja, ingredients, including for this recipe. Left out the meat and onions. It came out perfect on the dresser in a roadside motel. ๐
My ex wife comes over for dinner just for this meal. Hahaha. It’s that good. Apparently.
@Felix, itโs that good! ๐คค๐
I love this recipe. I was wondering how much extra water I would add if I up the pasta to 12 ounces?
I want to stick with one jar of sauce since I find the recipe saucier than I need. I’m thinking 1 additional cup, with cooking time remaining the same?
I figure this is a worthy experiment to at least try one time. I really appreciate your input as I’m still very much a foodie novice. Thank you! ๐
I would keep cook time the same. Add 1 cup of small pasta like shells? So long as you can submerge it into the liquid you should be okay as is, if not maybe add 1/3 c liquid more?