The Cozy Cookbook is here! 
This Instant Pot Spaghetti has perfectly cooked spaghetti noodles in marinara sauce with ground beef, simple seasonings, and cream cheese as an amazing secret ingredient. Your family will love this 30 minute meal!
Try my Eggplant Parmesan next! And don’t forget a side of Garlic Bread with Cheese.
Instant Pot Spaghetti
If you’re looking for an easy dinner idea that the whole family can actually agree on, this is it.
Not only is it super convenient to cook this entire meal in one pot, but the flavors blend so perfectly together, you’ll never make spaghetti any other way!
See below for my PRO tips for freezing, this makes a great freezer meal.
How to Make it
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode. Heat the olive oil and add the ground beef. Cook and crumble the beef, drain any grease.
- Stir in the seasonings. Break the spaghetti noodles in half and criss-cross them over the ground beef to prevent them from sticking together.
- Add the chicken broth and undrained diced tomatoes.
- Add marinara sauce and ensure spaghetti noodles are completely submerged.
- Pressure cook for 8 minutes.
- Flip the quick release valve. Stir in the cream cheese. Sauce will thicken upon standing. Serve!
Using a 6 Quart Instant Pot
- I us my trusty 6-quart Instant Pot for this recipe, which is what I recommend for most families, and is what most Instant Pot recipes are based on.
- It can cook enough food for a family of four and won’t take as long to come to pressure as an 8 quart will.
Burn Message Indicator
The burn indicator can sometimes trigger more easily with starchy foods, (i.e. – pasta). Rest assure, there is a sufficient amount of liquid in this recipe to avoid burning this pasta.
Even so, I commonly see this indicator when I am cooking but I just let it continue to come to pressure and eventually it goes away.
For more information you can check out these 7 Instant Pot Burn Mistakes you need to avoid.
Storing Leftovers
Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Tips for Freezing
- Cook the pasta to the Al Dente Point, but no more. That way the pasta won’t be overcooked when you reheat it. The quick release of the pressure valve helps to halt the cooking process.
- I make portion-sized foil packets for these and place them right from the freezer to a 350° oven for about 20-25 minutes, depending on the portion size.
- You can also freeze them in Ziploc bags and place in the fridge overnight to defrost.
More Instant Pot Meals:
- Creamy Chicken Stew
- Chicken and Stuffing
- Hamburger Helper
- Roasted Potatoes
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Split Pea Soup
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Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 pound ground beef, I use 85% lean
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon Italian Seasonings
- Salt/pepper, to taste
- ½ pound spaghetti
- 24 oz. marinara sauce
- 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes, undrained
- 2 cups chicken broth, can sub water
- 2 Tablespoons cream cheese, softened (optional, but recommended!)
Instructions
- Set the instant pot to Sautee. Add the Olive oil and ground beef. Cook and crumble the ground beef until it is browned and cooked through. Drain any excess grease if needed,
- Stir in the seasonings. Use a silicone spatula to scrape up any brown bits that might be stuck to the bottom of the pan. (This helps prevent the burn indicator message.)
- Break the spaghetti noodles in half. Crisscross them over the meat so that they don't stick together.
- Add the chicken broth and undrained diced tomatoes over the noodles. Top with marinara and ensure the noodles are submerged.
- Cover/Seal the Instant Pot and set it to pressure cook for 8 minutes (Or, select the manual button and hit high pressure for 8 minutes). Note: It might sound like nothing is happening but if you put your ear up to the instant pot after a few minutes, you can hear it working.
- Turn the quick release valve to let all of the steam escape, and open the pot. (Do not let the pressure release naturally as this will overcook the pasta.)
- Stir in the cream cheese. The sauce will continue to thicken upon standing. Serve, and enjoy!
Notes
Substitutions and additions:
- Ground Turkey or Chicken may also be used.
- Thin Spaghetti may also be used. Pressure cook for 6 minutes instead of 8.
- For a similar flavor to Bolognese, saute diced onions, celery, and carrots when browning the meat.
So glad to have found this! Definitely my new (and now only) way to make spaghetti! We just moved to an RV and doing it all in the Instant Pot is so much easier than boiling noodles in one pot, browning meat and making sauce in another…and that little addition of cream cheese?! OMG – that is the magic that my spaghetti has been missing for all these years!
Hi Monica! I’m SOOOOO happy you loved it!!!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to rate and comment!!!
Hello. If I want to bake this with cheese after, should I shorten the cook time in the IP? Thanks!
Hi Tracy! Yes, you’ll want to do that by about a minute or so, maybe two minutes tops! 🤗
Sorry, I am a newbie… Going to make your spaghetti tonight and was wondering if I need to make any modifications to make in an 8qt?
Hi Lisa, no modifications necessary! Enjoy!
Third time making this tonight. This time I encountered the dreaded InstantPot ‘BURN’ message! Opened up the pot, tried to “deglaze” but apparently not enough because I got the ‘BURN’ two more times. Gave up and just ate it since it was completely cooked. It’s good even without going through full pressure process. Any idea why this happens and/or ways to prevent it for this recipe?
Hi Diane- I have a whole section in the post that talks about this- check out the “What if the Burn Indicator Turns on During Pressure Cooking?” section.
Super quick and very yummy!! We used ground turkey and it was amazing!
Hi Leslie! YAAY I’m so happy you loved it! I like using ground turkey too!! Thank you for taking the time to comment and rate! ❤️
Just made this tonight. It was so so yummy.
Hey Deborah! I’m so happy that you loved the spaghetti! I love being able to rely on this easy meal when I have no idea what to make! And it’s perfect because we all love it! 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Good evening,
When the kids say, “Daddy, can I please have more spaghetti”, you know the recipe was a big hit. Thank you for this post.
We have four kids between 5 1/2 and 8… so each have their preferred ways of eating spaghetti. One without sauce. One with sauce on the side. Two without specific requests.
Now, they’ll all have the same request: The Cozy Spaghetti.
My only disappointment, is that I didn’t find you sooner.
Thank you!
And finally, my children will agree with one of my favorite dishes.
First time CozyCook follower.
Hey David! This TOTALLY made my night when I saw it yesterday, I even read your comment to my husband- you are the best! I am SOO happy that you love this recipe as much as my family does. It’s amazing that such a simple dish can taste so much better in the Instant Pot, and a dab or two of cream cheese makes it so tasty. (Now I want some!)- Thank you so much for taking the time to write this!!!
I made this for dinners last night and it was perfect! Your recipe tasted so yummy. It’s a keeper for my family. Thank you!
Hey Marilyn! That is SUCH great news, it’s so funny actually, my daughter and I had this last night too! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it, I bet you won’t want to make spaghetti any other way now! 🙂 Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me how it came out, I always love and appreciate that! -Stephanie
Just got an instant pot and this was my first recipe to try. I used meatless crumbles and even though I sprayed the pot very well with non-stick spray they still stuck and I eventually got the dreaded burn message. Fortunately the spaghetti “cooked” long enough that it was actually done (I don’t think it ever reached pressure since the bobber never went up). Also, it seemed like the sauce did not cover the noodles very well so I was a little skeptical but the noodles got cooked. All that to say, lesson learned for next time, thank you for the recipe.
Hi Harold! I’m so happy that this recipe ended up working out for you! Sometimes I have to crunch those spaghetti noodles a little bit to get them covered completely, and that burn message is a tough one, I was talking to a friend about that this weekend. I feel like if there is even the slightest bit of residue on the bottom of the instant pot, (even if it’s completely clean, but maybe some black left on the bottom), you’re more likely to get the burn message. I’ve gotten it a few times myself but just like you, the recipe always ends up turning out in the end! Thank you for taking the time to rate/comment! Have a great day! -Stephanie
Can I increase the amount of spaghetti? I’d like to use a pound of pasta. Do I need to double the sauce, and would it all fit in a 6 quart?
Hi Susie! I would recommend doubling the amount of ground beef and Seasonings, and sautéing those all together. Then maybe remove all of the meat, add in a pound of pasta with the rest of the remaining ingredients doubled, as long as you don’t hit that max line inside the instant pot you will be fine. Once it’s done, you can stir in the ground beef and the cream cheese!