One dinner that will satisfy everyone in your house is Instant Pot Spaghetti with your favorite Jar Sauce! Pop it all in your Electric Pressure Cooker, no boiling, draining, or multiple pots. Just a 2 minute cook time with a 5 minute natural release and your spaghetti dinner is ready!
Some other great pasta dinner recipes are Instant Pot Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, and Tomato Cream Sauce.
Ingredients
Here are the things you need to make this Instant Pot Spaghetti recipe:
Chicken Broth – I use chicken broth because it adds another layer of flavor to your spaghetti. However, you can absolutely use water instead.
Store Bought Marinara – I happen to have Prego sauce in my pantry the day that I made this, but use whatever sauce your family loves!
You can even use homemade marinara sauce if you like.
How to Make Spaghetti in Your Instant Pot
Start with your Instant Pot on sauté mode and add the olive oil. Once it is hot add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes. Stir often making sure they don’t burn.
Turn off the sauté mode and stir in the kosher salt. Then pour in the chicken broth (or water) and scrape up and browned bits from the bottom.
Pro Tip: never skip scraping up the browned bits (called deglazing) when using the Instant Pot. It helps prevent the burn notice.
Grab the spaghetti and break in half. Place the spaghetti in the pot in a crisscross pattern. This prevents the pasta from cooking in one large clump.
Do not stir the pasta at this point, just give it a light press to make sure that it is all touching the liquid.
Pour half the jar of sauce over the pasta, then sprinkle on the seasonings.
Close the lid and turn the pressure valve to seal. Set to cook for 2 minutes.
At the end do a 5 minute natural release. Finish with a quick release.
PRO TIP: It will look a little watery when you open the pot, don’t worry, the starches from the cooked pasta will thicken it up while it cools!
Stir in the rest of the jar of sauce and toss the pasta. Let the pasta rest for about 5 minutes so it can thicken a little while it cools.
Taste for additional seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder), then serve warm topped with parmesan cheese.
Tips to Make it Perfect!
Follow these few tips to make sure your Instant Pot Spaghetti turns out perfect:
- Salt your water/broth! By salting the liquid you in turn are seasoning your pasta.
- Break the spaghetti noodles in half and then crisscross them in the pot. This will prevent your noodles from cooking into one big clump.
- Make sure the noodles are all touching the liquid.
- Put the broth/water on the bottom and the sauce on top to avoid the burn notice.
- Use regular spaghetti noodles… not fettuccine, angel hair, gluten free etc… this recipe is written for straight up spaghetti noodles. You can use the other pastas, it will just change the cook time and possibly liquid quantities.
Recipe FAQ’s
The cooking liquid you use needs to be able to build a good amount of steam, like water or broth, in turn building pressure. Therefore a thick tomato sauce or thickened cream sauce are not considered good cooking liquids for the Instant Pot, unless diluted with water or broth.
Absolutely! It is recommended that you use dry pasta, not fresh, in the Instant Pot. You can find the cooking time on the package by finding the average stovetop boil time, divide that time in half and then substract 2 minutes. Make sure you add a 5 minute natural release at the end.
If you do not have ample thin liquid added to your thick tomato sauce it will burn. It is essentially cooking to the bottom of the Instant Pot, where the heating element is. If you have enough broth or water added to the tomato sauce then it will boil/steam, which is what you want.
Related Recipes
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Instant Pot Spaghetti with Jar Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ onion minced/diced
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups chicken broth (or water)
- 1 lb. dry spaghetti noodles
- 24 oz favorite jarred marinara sauce divided
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
- Start with your Instant Pot on sauté mode and add the olive oil. Once it is hot add the onions and garlic and sauté for about 5 minutes. Stir often, making sure they don't burn.
- Turn off the sauté mode and stir in the kosher salt. Then pour in the chicken broth (or water) and scrape up and browned bits from the bottom.
- Break your spaghetti noodles in half and layer them in a crisscross pattern in the liquid. Pro Tip: Do not stir the noodles at this point. You can nudge them down into the liquid, but don't stir.
- Pour HALF OF THE 24 oz jar of marinara over the noodles. Sprinkle the basil, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder over the top.
- Pop the lid on, turn the pressure valve to seal, and set to cook for 2 minutes on high pressure. Do a 5 minute natural release and the finish with a quick release.
- Open the pot and pour in the other half of the spaghetti sauce. Do not be alarmed if your pasta looks watery when you open the pot it will thicken as it cools. Give it all a good toss. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to cool and thicken.
- Taste for additional seasonings (salt and pepper).
- Serve warm topped with grated parmesan cheese!
Notes:
- Break the spaghetti noodles in half and then crisscross them in the pot. This will prevent your noodles from cooking into one big clump.
- Make sure the noodles are all touching the liquid.
- Put the broth/water on the bottom and the sauce on top to avoid the burn notice.
- Use regular spaghetti noodles… not fettuccine, angel hair, gluten free etc… this recipe is written for straight up spaghetti noodles. You can use the other pastas, it will just change the cook time and possibly liquid quantities.
If nutrition facts are provided they are calculated as an estimate to the best of our knowledge.
BusyMom
Put 3 1/4 cups water just to be sure it wouldn’t burn and followed the rest of the directions exactly. The instant pot still came up saying burn and I had to salvage what I could.
Carol
I have made this and the sauce is to thin can I cut the water down to 1 1/2 cups
Susie Weinrich
I would go down to 1 3/4 cups or 2 cups, just to make sure you have enough liquid and you don’t get the “burn” warning.
Stephanie
I was skeptical but this is really good. Just enough “doctoring up” to make it taste homemade
Sam
I cris crossed the noodles but they still came out in a clump. Is there anything i can do to fix it?
Lexi Evans
I added a little oil on top of the noddles and they didn’t stick.