Instant Pot Cream Cheese Spaghetti

Instant Pot Cream Cheese Spaghetti - made April 16, 2020, modified from Spicy Southern Kitchen

I've seen versions of this recipe making the rounds on pinterest so I thought I'd try it as a variation of the Instant Pot Spaghetti I made earlier that turned out pretty well.

Unfortunately for me, this one didn't turn out quite as well as the first but I think the mistakes I made could easily be remedied for a better dish. For one thing, for any instant pot spaghetti recipe, not just this one, don't use thin noodles like angel hair pasta. Even pressure cooking this at 6 minutes which is what I did made the noodles too mushy, especially when reheating later. Plus angel hair noodlesstuck together more than thicker noodles would have. Regular spaghetti or fettuccine noodles would've been better.

The other issue is more of a personal preference thing but I thought this was just a little too creamy for me due to the cream cheese. Which I should've expected but alas, I underestimated just how rich and creamy the cream cheese would make it. If creamy sauce is your thing, this is great. If not, cut the cream cheese in half.

I didn't have Italian seasoning so I made up my own substitute which is easy to do if you have basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme. I also only had an 18-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce instead of the 24-ounce jar called for in the original recipe so I used all of the 6-ounce can of tomato paste and increased the amount of water by 1/4 cup. That worked pretty well and I'm glad I don't have leftover tomato paste to worry about using later.

1 pound lean ground beef
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I substituted 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon thyme)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
12 ounces uncooked thin spaghetti
2 3/4 cups water
1 18-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
1 8-ounce block cream cheese, cut into pieces and softened (decrease to 4 ounces if you don't want super creamy sauce)
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Turn on Instant Pot to Saute mode and brown ground beef, stirring to break up large clumps. Drain excess grease.
2. Turn Instant Pot off and add garlic powder, salt, Italian seasoning (or substitutes), pepper, crushed red pepper and tomato paste. Stir to mix.
3. Break dry spaghetti noodles in half and layer over ground beef mixture.
4. Pour in water and spaghetti sauce, ensuring noodles are submerged in liquid. Do not stir.
5. Place lid on and set to pressure cook (manual setting) for 6-8 minutes (6 for thin noodles, up to 8 for regular noodles).
6. When Instant Pot is finished, do a quick pressure release. Remove lid and add cream cheese and Parmesan cheese, stirring into mixture. Replace lid and let sit for 5 minutes to completely melt the cheeses. Stir and serve warm.