Instant Pot Ground Beef and Pasta
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So stinking easy and budget-friendly! The perfect ONE POT meal with a hearty meat sauce. Only 5 min in the Instant Pot!
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why i love this recipe
- One and done meal. Thanks to the magic of the Instant Pot, this pasta dinner comes together so easily with zero babysitting. Even the uncooked pasta cooks right in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, soaking up all the flavors as if it had been simmering for hours on end. This means less dishes, less clean up!
- Speedy budget-friendly comfort food. With its quick cook time and short ingredient list, this is truly the best kind of comfort food without breaking the bank, pleasing the entire family, even the little toddlers.
- Flexible recipe. This is an incredibly flexible recipe, using pasta you already have on hand, or throwing in any lingering greens and veggies (ex. carrots, broccoli, frozen peas and corn) for a heartier meal.
- Freezer-friendly. This freezes beautifully, thawing overnight and reheating over the stovetop for a lightening fast weeknight meal.
Ingredients
Ground beef
Lean ground beef (90%) is ideal here. Note: the fattier the beef, the beefier it will be!
Onion
Yellow, sweet or white onion is great here. Shallots can also be substituted.
Garlic
Garlic powder or garlic puree can also be used in a pinch.
Red wine
Use a dry red such as cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or merlot. Red wine is a great way to deglaze the bottom of the Instant Pot, loosening up all the brown bits (where all the flavor is at!).
Marinara sauce
Since we’re doctoring up store-bought marinara sauce, be sure to use your favorite brand. Rao’s Roasted Garlic is always our go-to.
Beef stock
Beef stock is here to keep things happy and saucy. Always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety.
Pasta
Campanelle pasta helps capture all the meaty saucy goodness in its curves and ruffled edges. Fusilli, cavatelli and gemelli are great options as well.
Parmesan
Finish your dish with a healthy dusting of freshly grated Parmesan. Freshly grated is always preferred, imparting the best flavors and melting capabilities for a smoother, velvety consistency.
Basil
Top with fresh basil or your favorite herbs such as thyme or rosemary.
tips and tricks for success
- Use your favorite meat. Italian sausage (sweet or spicy), ground beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry red wine (cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or merlot) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your dish. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with instant pot ground beef and pasta
Tools For This Recipe
6-qt Instant Pot®
Instant Pot Ground Beef and Pasta: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground turkey or even Italian sausage can be used in place of ground beef.
Additional beef stock can be used for red wine as a non-alcoholic substitute.
Fusilli, cavatelli and gemelli are great subs.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop.
Instant Pot Ground Beef and Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup dry red wine*
- 1 (25-ounce) jar marinara sauce
- 1 ¾ cups beef stock
- 8 ounces campanelle pasta
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Equipment
Instructions
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Heat olive oil; add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in marinara sauce, beef stock and pasta; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 5 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions. Stir in Parmesan and basil.
- Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Just made for the 1st time. Increased beef to 1.5 lbs. Also increased noodles, about 12-14 oz – cellentani noodles. Used a 32 oz jar of marinera, to give increased meat/noodles more liquid. SHOULD have also increased beef stock – did not. Got the burn message 2x! Regardless, tasted very good – better than spaghetti!!!
I was SO skeptical about using the instant pot for pasta but decided to give it a whirl when I realized I didn’t have to worry about boiling water and draining pasta.
I used a full 16 ounces of rigatoni pasta but kept everything else the same. I cooked it under pressure for 6 minutes and it was undercooked. I put the lid to the instant pot back on and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and it softened the noodles perfectly to my liking.
I am so surprised at how awesome it turned out. I can’t get over how creamy it was even though I left out the Parmesan.
Delicious! We used a full 16 oz of penne, and it still worked out perfectly. Super easy and great for instant pot beginners!
This was so good! So quick. So easy. And toddler approved. I did have to double the cooking time either because of the pasta I had on hand or our high altitude. But still it was worth it. Putting this in the emergency dinner file.
I’m not much of a spaghetti lover but this hit the spot! I used rigatoni, which wasn’t quite done after 5 minutes of pressure cooking. I chose to sauté it for a few minutes and added in a generous scoop of sour cream and another of cottage cheese and stirred them into the mix. Perfect, slightly creamy lasagna-like pasta. Next time I’m going to add a whole pound of pasta and maybe a little more beef stock so we can have a healthy amount leftover. Great flavor!
Mighty tasty. Easy to use everyday ingredients. Used penna pasta and they came out perfect!~
Can you use beef broth instead of stock? It’s all I have right now.
I had Rotini noodles, Ragu spaghetti sauce and Red sparkling sauce and Worcester sauce because that’s what I had and it’s still good. It smells so good and the recipe is so easy and added oregeno to my seasoning.
This came out really tasty! Thank you for the recipe. I was curious about the serving size. About how many oz/grams is one serving? I see this made 6 servings – just trying to get a sense of quantity / calories ?
This is an amazing recipe! But there was lots of liquid when I opened the pot, so I added about 2oz of tomato paste, and it came out perfect. I also added salt and pepper too.
Sounds great. Can you make it and leave it on the keep warm setting for a while?
Damn tasty! Just wanted to say I’ve never heard of anyone throwing away perfectly good ground meat just because a recipe called for a little less than a pound
Flavor gets 5 stars.
I followed the recipe, but my Instant Pot ended up with a “burn” error, and I had to transfer to the oven to finish it and soak the Instant Pot. Since I was finishing it in the oven, I went ahead and added a ricotta topping. Made it a little more lasagna like. Delicious.
Hi Linda, The reason you may have gotten the “Burn” error would be maybe you didn’t scrap everything off the bottom of the pot when you were using the saute mode. That would give you a burn error.
I used elbow Mac bc it came in an 8 oz box (easy). No wine but I used a little Worcestershire sauce and made up the difference in liquid with broth. It was good & one of the easier instanpot recipes I’ve done.
I am going to make this tonight but I had a quick question. After you drain the fat off the beef do you put it back in the pot before you had the onions?
One of my family’s favorite dinners and I love it because it is so easy! The pasta comes out perfectly al dente every time somehow. I half the ground beef (or double everything else). Delish!!
Wow. I have no words. This recipe is the best thing to ever happen in our instant pot – I just can’t stop eating it!!! The red wine is a MUST, it adds a flavour unlike any other bolognese-style sauce I have ever had. I would give this 10 stars if I could. I didn’t have enough marinara sauce (I doubled the recipe) so I had to use canned diced tomatoes and I replaced the beef stock with chicken stock (it was all I had). But even with those subs, this came out absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Did you double everything? Im looking to double it but am afraid it won’t work out! Rookie here!
Made it tonight in a 6 qt Instant Pot. After pressure cooking there was still a lot of liquid – I may have used too much pasta sauce – so I just let it reduce a bit in sauté mode. All in all, I was amazed how good it tasted considering I usually need to let a meat sauce simmer for an hour.
If anyone else is looking for the same info I was — this recipe works perfectly with vegan substitutions. Nutritional yeast for the Parmesan, meatless crumbles for the ground beef, vegetable stock instead of beef. Threw in a handful of mushrooms, as well. Absolutely can’t be a lazy Wednesday dinner that is this tasty for so little money and effort.
Eeek! Need your help. The Recipe was DELICIOUS. Not here is my question :
Followed it to a T, but the Cooker hissed and a wee bit of steam thru out the build up and in the cooking time.
After it was safe, I removed the lid…the silicone ring was fine. It was in place.
The food was great. But I cannot figure the hissing…I know it is normal for a bit of time but not the whole cook time. It is a 6 art.
Any thoughts?
Merry Christmas
thats the release for the pressure valve! stand back when you do this because you will burn yourself!!! Im learning myself like when the food says burn you add more liquid…. I really love this thing..good luck
Sounds like a bit of minor leaking. I have an electric pressure cooker that does this sometimes and I usually just carefully nudge the “steam release handle” using a wooden spoon. You can also check that your sealing ring is tightly attached just before using it each time. If recipes turn out OK, then probably nithing to be worired about.
This was a lovely, hearty meal. I have 6 to feed so I added a lb of pasta and and extra 1.5 c of beef broth. And a bunch of spice.
No fancy noodles on hand so used fusilli (like rotini.)
Fast and easy. Next time I will do half again. All 5 of my kids and I loved it! Thank you
I’ve made this twice and am about to again tonight. Super easy, cheesy, and quick.