Here is a really easy homemade Instant Pot spaghetti sauce with ground beef recipe! All you need are a few pantry ingredients to make the most flavorful Ninja Foodi pressure cooker sauce ever. In 20 minutes it was done and we were ready to make Instant Pot spaghetti from there.
This homemade Instant Pot spaghetti sauce is probably the easiest thing I’ve made. It happened kind of by accident. Of course I planned to make this in my pressure cooker so I could add it to my collection of Instant Pot recipes, and it went from there. (affiliate links present)
Homemade Ninja Foodi Spaghetti Sauce
Ok so if you follow The Typical Mom at all you know I am all about easy. Of course you can make slow cooker spaghetti sauce too but this is done in just a fraction of the time.
I assure you that when you make this just once you’ll wonder where this recipe has been all your life. ๐ You can make this with or without meat, but we always add it in. Use your IP, Crockpot Express or as an easy Ninja Foodi recipe too. Any of these brands will work just fine, we don’t discriminate y’all.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce Meat Sauce
Here’s the story. I was at the grocery store when I noticed the rolls of spicy sausage in the meat department were just $.99. It’s seriously the best, and use it a multitude of recipes so I took one and thought “I’m going to figure out something to make with this today.” My initial thought was an easy homemade pasta sauce!
You see when I met my husband this was one of “his recipes” meaning if I asked him to cook there were a few choices and this was one. Hamburgers, pasta with scallops, or he would make his own sauce in a huge pot. There was so much for just the two of us that it was ridiculous, but early on I couldn’t break his heart to tell him that.
It was like he was cooking for 12 people and a lot of it go wasted. Took him like all day nursing it to his liking. Although it was good, I wanted it paired down to a normal amount and have the cook time for spaghetti be a lot less.
I remembered what he added and worked on just that. A pot full that was more for about 6 people so we could make dinner for the now 4 of us and then save some for later. This is what I came up with, and at the end I had enough for a small meal later. Freezing it for later worked quite well, I will talk about that later…..
One of the other many reasons I love this fancy pressure cooker is you only dirty one pot to make the whole thing. Browning the sausage and onions together on saute, and then adding all the other ingredients make it super simple.
For years my husband simmered and babied his sauce in a huge pot on the stove top, and he even had to admit this one was so good there wasn’t much difference. HAH…..I win. ๐
How long does it take to make homemade spaghetti sauce in a pressure cooker?
I simmered it on the soup setting for just 20 minutes!! If you were in a hurry you could set it for 10 minutes and I think it would still be great too. You are just warming everything together at that point because the meat is already cooked.
Can you make spaghetti sauce without meat?
Of course this is an option, marinara is what that would be called. If you didn’t want to add any proteins then you could just skip that sauteeing step and continue after that to the high pressure stages in the recipe card below.
What kind of noodles can you use to make spaghetti?
One of my earliest recipes was homemade Instant Pot spaghetti, and later Instant Pot penne pasta with, well penne noodles. They’re two of my most popular pressure cooker recipes on my site. As far as noodles go you can use just about anything.
If you prefer homemade sauce though, you can start with this recipe. Then submerge spaghetti noodles broken in 3rds into the sauce. Then pressure cook for 10 minutes until tender.
For a lower carb option, make air fryer zoodles and serve this sauce on the top. If you haven’t tried this you’ll be surprised at just how good it is. Just cook until slightly tender with still some texture to it and toss with this sauce. Even my kids were surprised at how good this option was.
Homemade Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce with Meat
Some people prefer to boil the noodles separately and others love one pot spaghetti because it gives the pasta so much more flavor, so it’s totally your choice. Either way making homemade spaghetti sauce is now so easy to make all the things with it now and later.
What is traditional spaghetti sauce made of?
- Whole peeled tomatoes will give it more texture than just sauce being used.
- Spicy sausage – seriously way better than using ground beef, I like Jimmy Dean brand
- Tomato sauce we used is listed below, use more or less depending on how thick you want it to be.
- Can of tomato paste will help to thicken all of it together.
- Diced tomatoes can be bought Italian style, spicy, or plain.
- Onion I add to everything, diced finely for flavor.
- 1 tbsp minced garlic goes in everything around here
- Garlic salt is a must always
- Basil and oregano are traditional Italian seasonings
- Salt, to taste at the end
What is the one ingredient that makes spaghetti sauce so much better?
I mean that depends on whom you ask but I think it is meat and cheese! Ground beef is just the beginning. For MORE flavor make Instant Pot porcupine meatballs, set aside and then combine when both are done.
Want to make cheesy?? Follow our Ninja Foodi spaghetti and then when done just add a layer of cheese on top and let it melt. I like the Mexican cheese blend at the store that has a few types mixed together with taco seasoning too. It’s killer for sure. If you have the CrispLid or Ninja Foodi you can brown the top too.
Here is a quick step by step but I also have a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post as well. Nutritional information will vary slightly if you add meat. I use very lean grass fed beef typically so that is what it accounts for. If I add sausage or it’s meatless then it would be different too.
How long to cook spaghetti sauce in Instant Pot
- Set pot to saute and add olive oil and sausage (or ground beef) and diced onions. Cook until meat is no longer pink, then turn pot off. Move meat to side and scrape bottom with wooden spoon to avoid burn notice.
- Spread meat on to the bottom of the pot. Add diced or crushed tomatoes would work too (or finely diced fresh tomatoes). Then add rest of ingredients. (some like a bit of red wine in the mix too)
- Close lid and steam valve. Push soup button for 20 minutes. If you just have high pressure button then use that for 12 minutes. Do a quick release when done.
After pressure cook time is up, remove the lid. If you want it really smooth you could use an immersion blender, we don’t.
You could put it in on saute. In a small dish whisk together a few tbsp of cornstarch with cold water until smooth. Pour in and stir. Another option is to add a bit of tomato paste, that is quite thick but a strong flavor so more seasonings may be necessary with this one.
How do you save leftover homemade spaghetti sauce?
Ok so when you are done and it is sitting off the burner you will need to wait until it is room temperature. You never want to transfer hot or even warm food from a pot into the fridge right away. It will have a strong chance of growing bacteria because of the dramatic temp. difference.
How to freeze leftovers
Use a ladle to transfer it into a large or pint sized freezer bag, depending on how much you have. Zip it tightly and lay it flat in the freezer. Once it is rock hard you can move it around to a different location but flat will save space in there and you can stack them if you have a few. Always remember to mark the date and contents on the outside too.
Should you freeze noodles in sauce?
Do not add noodles into the mix if you are going to freeze it, those will get mushy and a super weird texture if you do. Just the sauce freezes well. If you have some with noodles in it, put in a container with a lid and in the fridge. Reheat in the microwave the next day for lunch for the best results overall.
Print recipe below. You can use this to make crockpot spaghetti and meatballs recipe too.
Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 can whole peeled tomatoes, 28 oz
- 1 roll spicy sausage, 12 oz
- 8 oz tomato sauce
- 6 oz water
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 can petite diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp garlic salt
- 1 tbsp basil
- 1 tsp oregano
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Put Instant Pot on saute, medium. Spray inside of pot with non stick spray. Add onions and sausage.
- Cook until sausage is completely cooked.
- Turn Instant Pot off by pushing cancel. Deglaze your pot by scraping stuck on meat off bottom with a bit of your water, if not you may get the burn notice.
- Add all other ingredients into your pot and stir. (I cut up the whole peeled tomatoes into smaller chunks).
- Close lid and steam valve and set to soup function, medium setting, for 20 minutes.
- Quick release, stir and put on top of noodles….or add about 8 oz of spaghetti noodles broken in half, submerge in liquid and set to manual, high, for 8 minutes to cook everything together.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m excited to make this recipe, having just discovered it. I’ve been thinking about making my own sauce because my blood pressure precludes me from salt. Making my own allows me to omit salt and substitute additional spices.
Here is my question; I have an 8qt Foodi and when you say use the soup setting what is the comparable function on the Foodi? Thank you in advance for your answer, and all of your fabulous recipes!!
Just use the pressure cook function on the Foodi
I made this last night in my 6 qt. Ip. My wife raved how good it was and agreed that the sauce was as good as my all day sauce, and it only took 12 min for the sauce. I added more garlic, fennel, basil, than recipe called for, EXCELLENT recipe And leftovers for tonight. Tyvm for the recipe.
A great recipe! I wonโt be buying sauce in a jar ever again. Super easy, too! I did add 2 tablespoons of sugar for a little sweetness and used extra virgin olive oil for sautรฉing the onion. Thanks for an easy sauce!
Yay for a yummy dinner!
do you know how long this is good to keep for in the fridge or freezer?
If I don’t want to cook the noodles with the sauce, should I cook the sauce longer?
Got a burn message before the pressure started to build. Added more water and okay but I wondered if it would be possible to keep the sauce a little thicker by cooking pot-in-pot? (btw, great recipe. I did fiddle with the spices, adding some fennel and a bay leaf and minced garlic rather than garlic salt)
There is plenty of liquid, there shouldn’t be any reason to get the burn notice. With that said some pots are more sensitive than others and surely it was a false error. I haven’t done PIP for this as there would be too much to fit in the inside pot I have.
Made this tonight. Was sooo good. Will be making again.
So glad you love it.
Oh my goodness!!! I should have tasted this before I asked that question because this sauce is amazing and so quick. Iโm Italian and have been making spaghetti sauce for many years the usual way by letting it simmer overnight and this one was done in 20 minutes and tastes just as good as mine. I must admit I did use my own seasonings. Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe as it will be used regularly. Thanks for sharing.
OH good!! So glad you love it too!
One question?? Why the soup setting? I just did this and it started venting before the 20 minutes were up.
What do you mean it started venting? I used soup setting because it is a slow and steady heat to really get flavors together. Never had pot break pressure on this or any other recipe once set unless steam valve was touched.
My Instant pot did the same thing. steam was coming out the whole time. It still built up enough pressure for the timer to start counting down. The sauce came out great though. I will definitely make it again.
I would make sure the inner ring inside the lid is not bad and in need of replacement or else it won’t seal properly.
Look at that color, it’s so beautiful and delicious! Iโll be making this soon.
OH good!