Instant Pot Spaghetti

Instant Pot Spaghetti - made March 10, 2020 from Emily Chef

I have been seeing recipes for Instant Pot Spaghetti on pinterest for awhile and as I hunkered down at home, it seemed like a good idea to make some meals ahead of time so I wouldn't have to worry about what to make for lunch or dinner, especially as "I don't feel like cooking" can't be as easily solved by going out to eat like I used to do.

Most of the recipes for instant pot spaghetti seems like it cheats though, as the sauce was often supposed to be jarred spaghetti sauce. That didn't seem like "real cooking" and more like "put everything in one pot and come up with spaghetti". But, I don't have the cooking chops to buck the majority of recipes. It seemed like the point of instant pot spaghetti was more than you could do everything in the instant pot rather than coming up with an authentic spaghetti dish made from scratch.

I have no cooking high road to take here so I went with it. And was pleasantly surprised that it actually worked. You brown the ground beef on saute mode first, then add the jarred sauce and spices, dry spaghetti noodles broken in half then water to cover. Don't stir but just cover and seal then set it to cook. This is probably the first thing I've made in the instant pot where I added water but the finished product wasn't watery. It tastes the same as non-instant pot spaghetti but you only have to deal with one pot and it's pretty easy to make. Definitely adding this to the cooking roster.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups water, divided
1 24-ounce jar marinara or other tomato-based spaghetti sauce
8 ounces dry spaghetti noodles
grated Parmesan, for serving

1. Turn Instant Pot to Saute setting. When hot, add olive oil and ground beef. Stir, breaking up ground beef into smaller pieces and add salt, onion powder and garlic powder. 
2. When ground beef is no longer pink, turn off the saute function and add 1/2 cup water then the sauce. Stir to combine.
3. Break noodles in half and spread them over the ground beef. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups water to the empty spaghetti sauce jar, twist the lid on and shake gently the rinse any residual sauce. Pour the water over the pasta. Do not stir.
4. Seal the instant pot and set to high for 8 minutes cook time with the pot in the seal position. When the instant pot turns off, quick release the pressure by moving the valve to open. Once all the pressure has released, remove lid, stir spaghetti to mix completely. Serve hot, garnished with Parmesan cheese.