This Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce has all the flavor of Mom’s homemade spaghetti sauce without spending hours at the stove. Using simple, affordable ingredients, this easy Instant Pot pasta sauce cooks in a mere fraction of the time or traditional sauce, but tastes like it simmered all day.
Why This Recipe Works
- Inspired by my Mom’s famous pasta sauce, packed with extra veggies and slow-simmered all day on the stovetop.
- Recreated in the Instant Pot Duo for a much faster cooking time without sacrificing flavor.
- This easy Instant Pot meat sauce tastes like it’s been simmering for hours but is ready in a fraction of the time.
- A bold, comforting pressure cooker spaghetti sauce that just might rival the original recipe.
- One of Pip and Ebby’s most-loved recipes, loaded with rich, bold flavor and perfect for spaghetti, lasagna, stuffed shells, or meatballs.
🥩 Meat Sauce Recipe Ingredients and Substitutions
Ground beef – Try ground turkey or ground chicken for a leaner option. For a richer flavor, use 80/20 ground meat.
Ground sausage – Use mild or hot Italian sausage depending on preference. For a lighter sauce, omit or replace with more beef.
Fresh garlic cloves – minced
Yellow onion – chopped
Crushed tomatoes – I use a 56 oz can. You can also break down canned whole tomatoes in your blender or food processor.
Marinara sauce – 24 ounces of either jarred or Homemade Marinara Sauce. If using plain tomato sauce, add some extra Italian seasoning.
Tomato paste – To help thicken the sauce and boost flavor. You can also simmer the sauce longer after pressure cooking to reduce liquid.
Italian seasoning – Or a blend of dried basil and oregano.
Fennel seeds – Omit if preferred, but this add a great extra flavor with the Italian sausage.
Bay leaves – Remove before serving.
Sugar – You can also use honey or grated carrot for natural sweetness and to balance the acidity from tomatoes.
Salt and black pepper
👩🍳 How To Make Homemade Instant Pot Meat Sauce
Step 1. Sauté the meat and aromatics:
Set the Instant Pot to Sauté function. Add ground beef, sausage, onion, and garlic. Cook until the meat is browned and onions are soft. Drain excess grease if needed.
Step 2. Add remaining ingredients:
Pour in crushed tomatoes, marinara sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, fennel seed, bay leaves, sugar, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
Step 3. Deglaze the pot:
Scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to prevent the “burn” notice.
Step 4. Pressure cook:
Secure the lid. Cook on High Pressure for 10 minutes (the pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure).
Step 5. Natural release:
Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then perform a quick release.
Step 6. Finish and serve:
Open the lid, stir, and remove the bay leaves. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve over cooked pasta, zoodles, or spaghetti squash.
Optional: For a thicker sauce, turn on saute function again and simmer uncovered for 5–10 minutes to reduce liquid.
Recipe Notes
- I love the combination of Italian sausage and ground beef in this sauce, but feel free to use one of the two instead. Or swap out both for ground chicken or turkey!
- The marinara sauce in the recipe adds a boldness that I absolutely adore. Feel free to replace it with two cans of tomato sauce, if desired.
- If you are searching for a sauce with even more flavor, try adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup red wine!
- In place of the crushed tomatoes, you can use 6-8 cups fresh tomatoes or frozen tomatoes, thawed and chopped (juices included).
- If you double the recipe, use 3 pounds of meat and make sure the contents of the Instant Pot stay below the max fill line.
🍝 What To Serve With Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce
- Use with spaghetti noodles or your favorite pasta shape and top with parmesan cheese
- Garlic bread or breadsticks
- Caesar salad or Italian chopped salad
- Roasted vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, or bell peppers)
- Baked or air-fried meatballs
🥣 What To Do With Leftover Spaghetti Sauce
- Use as a base for lasagna, stuffed shells, or baked ziti.
- Spoon over spaghetti squash, gnocchi, or zoodles.
- Use as a pizza sauce or sandwich spread for Italian subs.
- Mix with cooked rice and cheese to stuff bell peppers.
🧊 How To Store + Freeze
To Store:
- Let the sauce cool completely.
- Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
To Freeze:
- Divide into freezer bags or containers.
- Freeze for up to 3 months.
- Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove or in the microwave.
💡 Homemade Sauce Recipe Tips + Variations
- Make it vegetarian: Omit the meat and use mushrooms, lentils, or plant-based crumbles.
- Add veggies: Finely chopped carrots, celery, or bell peppers add texture and nutrition.
- Kick up the spice: Use hot Italian sausage or add crushed red pepper flakes.
- Make it creamy: Stir in a splash of heavy cream or a dollop of ricotta after pressure cooking.
❓FAQs
Yes! Cook time remains the same! Just be careful you don’t fill your Instant Pot past the MAX line.
Tomatoes release a lot of liquid under pressure. If your sauce seems too thin, use the Sauté mode to cook off the extra water and reduce the sauce to your desired thickness.
You can, but fennel seed gives a classic Italian sausage flavor that enhances the sauce. You can also replace it by adding some fresh basil at the end.
You’ll need to thaw it first to brown properly, the Instant Pot won’t sauté frozen meat evenly. Check out my post on how to cook frozen ground meat in the Instant Pot.
More Easy Instant Pot Recipes
- Instant Pot Goulash
- Instant Pot Shrimp Scampi
- Instant Pot Chicken Tetrazzini
- Instant Pot Breakfast Casserole
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Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce
Equipment
- Instant Pot
Ingredients
Instructions
- Set Instant Pot to saute. Add the ground beef, sausage, garlic and onion and cook until meat is no longer pink; drain, if needed.
- Add the tomatoes, marinara sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, fennel seed, bay leaves, sugar, salt and pepper to the pot; mix well. Deglaze the pot (remove bits from the bottom with a spoon).
- Place the cover on the pot and set timer to 10 minutes on high pressure (pressure cook setting). It will take the IP around 10 minutes to build up pressure before it begins cooking.
- When cooking is done, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes; do a quick release.
- Remove cover, stir and remove/discard bay leaves. Serve with your favorite pasta and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired. Store leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge!
Video
Notes
- I love the combination of Italian sausage and ground beef in this sauce, but feel free to use one of the two instead. Or swap out both for ground chicken or turkey!
- The marinara sauce in the recipe adds a boldness that I absolutely adore. Feel free to replace it with two cans of tomato sauce, if desired.
- If you are searching for a sauce with even more flavor, try adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup red wine!
- In place of the crushed tomatoes, you can use 6-8 cups fresh tomatoes or frozen tomatoes, thawed and chopped (juices included).
- If you double the recipe, use 3 pounds of meat and make sure the contents of the Instant Pot stay below the max fill line.
Instead of sugar, I added a carrot. Great recipe in my Pinterest pile.
Love knowing that you came over from Pinterest! What a great idea .. adding a carrot! Thanks for sharing.
Every time I make this in the instant pot I get a burn notice. What am I doing wrong??
I’m sorry, Debby that is frustrating. There are usually 2 reasons for it – one if you sauteed meat in it prior to using the pressure cooker, then just be sure that you scraped any remnants off the bottom. It’s easiest to do this once you add some of the sauce. Take your wooden spoon and just run it along the bottom where the meat may have left some pieces for the IP to throw that up. 2nd, is if noodles are cooked along the bottom of the pot. That’s why I layer the sauce and liquid in any recipe at the bottom and the noodles at the top. Usually if you catch the burn notice right away, it’s still cooking in there, so just reset the pot and you’re good to go. Even while it’s building pressure, it’s cooking!
This sounds really great and can’t wait to try it. However, can you recommend a slight mod using only whole San Marzano tomatoes (blitzed, of course) and tomato paste? Without compromising the flavor. I would like to be able to just stock those items but not marinara sauce. Thanks
Hi Cortada, if you don’t want to buy marinara, it’s easy to make with your tomatoes. Here’s a link to my recipe. But I think you could just cook it in and play with it too! https://pipandebby.com/pip-ebby/homemade-marinara-sauce/
Thanks for the quick reply. I think out of respect for your recipe I’ll do it first as presented here, then with your homemade marinara, and after that start playing around with the direct San Marzano approach. Meanwhile, let’s check out your other offerings.
Excellent! I thought I had a good spaghetti sauce recipe; which would take me a very long time to make on the stove and wanted to find out how I could make it in my Instapot instead. Made this last night and WOW, this was fantastic! My husband raved and raved about it with every bite and thanked me all night for making this. He said he could eat it three-times a week. He even wanted to know if this could be used as a sauce to put over other foods, like Mexican and pork chops!! ha ha I told him it cannot be used for those. I changed it a bit. I just added: 1 1/2 Tb. basil (instead of Italian seasoning, 4-oz. can sliced mushrooms, 1/2 onion vs. 1-whole, 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes, 2 tsp. dried parsley, 1/4 cup Marsala wine and one small can black, sliced olives. Thank the Lord I found how to make this in my Instapot! Now I will not dread making spaghetti sauce any more. Thank you so much!
Ramona, I love the comments. Thank you for sharing your tips and how you enjoyed it. I love this!