This Instant Pot meat sauce is thick, hearty, and flavorful. Make this pasta sauce recipe tonight for a quick and easy family favorite meal.
Homemade meat sauce is such a classic staple in so many kitchens. You can use it in so many different recipes or simply pour it over a big bowl of pasta for instant comfort food.
A big drawback to traditional sauces is that they can take so much time to make on the stovetop. Sometimes you need to throw together a meal quickly or make enough for a large group of people.
Pressure cooking this sauce saves you hours of simmering on the stove without losing all the extra flavor. I love using the Instant Pot to cook things that take a long simmer like Instant Pot Low-carb Cranberry Sauce as it is so flavourful but quick. That’s what makes this meat sauce recipe so easy!
All you need is about 15 minutes of prep, then set it and forget it. You’ll have a delicious homemade tomato sauce with ground meat ready in under an hour.
- Meat: grass-fed ground beef and pancetta. You can also use ground pork.
- Veggies: white onion, carrots, celery, crushed tomatoes
- Liquids: beef stock, beef broth, tomato paste, tomato sauce
- Seasoning: Italian seasoning, dried basil, bay leaves
- Pantry staples: olive oil, garlic, salt
- Set your Instant Pot to Sauté on high. Add the olive oil and vegetables. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the pancetta.
- After a few minutes, you’ll add the ground beef. Use a wooden spoon to break up the meat into smaller pieces, and when the beef is brown, use a strainer to drain off the grease.
- Next, add the garlic, tomato paste, and seasonings. Stir until well combined.
- Pour in the beef stock and scrape the bottom of the pressure cooker pot to loosen up any browned bits. Then, gently stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bay leaves. NOTE: To prevent the tomatoes from burning to the bottom of the Instant Pot, try not to stir too much.
- Put on the lid and lock it. Then, select manual setting; adjust to high pressure, and set time for 20 minutes. Mine took about 15 minutes to reach pressure. After the 20 minutes is up, do a Quick Release, which means move the valve to venting to release the steam.
Recipe Tips
- You should be able to find pancetta at any major grocery store. However, if you can’t find pancetta, you can substitute it with prosciutto, bacon, salted pork, or smoked sausage.
- If you don’t have Italian seasoning, simply make a combination of dried oregano, basil, thyme, and parsley. You can also use a little bit of garlic powder and onion powder too if you prefer.
- Traditionally, bolognese-style meat sauce is served over Tagliatelle pasta but you can serve it over whatever pasta you have on hand like rigatoni for example. You can even serve them over zoodles or on top of a delicious garlic bread if you’d like.
- If you’re a fan of parmesan, you can add a handful to the sauce. Parmesan cheese adds a nice tangy and creamy finish to this meat sauce if you stir it into the sauce at the end.
- If you are using tomato paste from a can, you can freeze the extra in tablespoon portions. I like using tomato pasta from a tub to make storing leftovers easier as it can be kept in the fridge for longer.
Way to use Meat Sauce
This sauce is so versatile and can be used in so many ways. Here are some ideas:Lasagna stuffed peppers, zucchini lasagna, zucchini noodles, chili, spaghetti squash and soups, moussaka, poured over sautéed or roasted vegetables
- Once your sauce is cooled, store the meat sauce recipe in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: You can reheat leftover meat sauce in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- To freeze: Freeze the cooled meat sauce in a freezer-safe bag or container. Don’t forget to squeeze out the air in the bag and place in the freezer flat. Freezing in a zip lock bag is great to save space for all your other freezer meals.
Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup white onion diced
- 1 cup carrot diced
- ½ cup celery diced
- ½ cup pancetta diced
- 2 pounds grass-fed ground beef
- ½ tablespoon clove garlic — minced
- 1 ½ tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
- ½ cup beef stock
- 28 oz 1 can crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups any tomato sauce you prefer
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Add olive oil, onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions in the pot are translucent, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add pancetta and cook for 2 minutes or so. Add ground beef and cook it until it’s browned about 7-10 minutes. Don’t forget to use a wooden spoon to break the meat up into small pieces in the pot; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic, tomato paste, dried basil, Italian seasoning, salt and black pepper.
- Stir in beef stock, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce and bay leaves.
- Put on the lid, lock it and check to see if the vent is at sealing. Then, select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 20 minutes. Mine took about 15 minutes to reach pressure. After the 20 minutes is up, do a Quick Release, which means move the valve to venting to release the steam.
- Select low sauté setting and simmer the sauce uncovered for about 5 minutes. Don’t forget to stir often. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
- Try using prosciutto, bacon, or smoked ham instead of pancetta.
- Instead of ground beef, you can use Italian sausage or ground turkey instead.
- To save time on chopping, you can add the vegetables to a food processor to finely chop them in a few seconds.
- To store: Once cooled, store the meat sauce in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- To reheat: You can reheat leftover meat sauce in the microwave or on the stovetop.
- To freeze: Freeze the cooled meat sauce in a freezer-safe bag or container.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Was just looking for a homemade spaghetti sauce recipe like we used to fix…then thought about instant pot since it’s so hot here. Well, boom, your recipe popped up and used all the ingredients (minus the pancetta) my old recipe did. This is a life saver…timewise, heat wise and especially taste wise. Used to simmer mine on stove for 3 hours. I have to tell you this sauce is marvelous. I use a combination of turkey & italian sausage in place of ground beef. The only thing I did notice was had to simmer at last part at least about 10 minutes…probably due to not having quite a pound of meat. You knocked this one out of the ballpark young lady, and I’ll have leftovers….always a great thing. Will be looking at more of your recipes as I forgot how nice it is to not heat house up in this sweltering heat. Thank you SO much for this 🙂
I am so happy you enjoyed this recipe just like my family and I do. It’s amazing and super easy to make.
I could barely make this recipe as the pop up ads are insane on this page. Kept taking me to a nicotine product page, even when I hadn’t moved my mouse. I must have 10 tabs of advertisements as I type this. The recipe itself looks good and its cooking and smells good. Unfortunately I can only see one review and I like to read reviews for tips on how to improve the recipe. Not sure where the reviews are hidden nor why…
Yummy
Thank you!
Excellent recipe. Won’t go back to Ravi ever again! Just be careful of the Food Burn warning. Got it the first time I made it. Just had to thin it out with a bit more broth.
Thank you for the positive feedback! I’m thrilled to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Your tip about being cautious with the Food Burn warning is invaluable. Happy cooking!
Excellent, thanks, Olivia. I followed it almost exactly. loved the pancetta part, I didn’t know about that.
Did get the Food Burn warning, but followed the other reviewer’s comment, and added more broth/water.
Only things I did differently were to add a bit of cinnamon to the sauce and I used sea salt to salt the meat before browning it. I also preferred to brown the meat in a frying pan then transferred it to the Instant pot and continued the recipe.
My daughter (and personal food critic haha) enjoyed it!
Adam
Thanks, Adam! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe and found ways to customize it to your taste. The addition of pancetta sounds delicious, and it’s great to hear that your daughter enjoyed it too! If you have any other questions or need more recipe recommendations, feel free to ask. Happy cooking!
I could eat this with a spoon, no pasta needed. Hands down the best meat sauce I’ve ever had in my life. I use 1 lb of Ground Beef and 1 lb of chicken Italian sausage. I put maybe about 3/4 of a cup of broth and twice as much tomato paste … it was sooooooo gooooood
happy you liked it!
This recipe is so great. However, I just keep getting an Instant Pot burn notice. What else can I do? How do you not stir it? Thanks