Alright…..I will admit that I am a little late to the Instant Pot craze. While I have used it for cooking dry beans and making my own cooking stocks, I hadn’t actually made a meal in it until a few weeks ago. My latest attempt was an awesome success. I will admit that even though I was told it would work, I still doubted this contraptions ability to successfully cook pasta.
I decided I would jump right in and try one of our favorite quick dinners, spaghetti and meatballs. Well, I used to think that it was a quick dinner, but now that I have made it in my Instant Pot, I am changing my ways of thinking. Instant Pot Spaghetti & Meatballs might not save you all that much time, but you only have dishwasher safe pan to use instead of 2 or 3! Plus, even though the meal still took about 30 minutes from start to finish with time for the pressure cooker to heat up and release the pressure at the end, it was time that I didn’t have to spend stirring anything on the stove or watching pots that might boil over. It’s literally set it and forget it, well at least until it’s timer goes off! The reviews from the family were great! The kids said the meatballs were their favorite, but they also said they liked how much flavor the pasta had. Unlike plain noodles topped with sauce, these noodles are cooked right in the sauce, so they soak up all of that flavor!
Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs
2 pounds meatballs – I used the brand from Sam’s Club
16 ounces spaghetti
2 – 24-ounce jars of marinara sauce
2 cups of water
1 cup of red wine (optional….can use additional water or beef stock)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
Directions:
Place the frozen meatballs in the bottom of the pressure cooker insert. Break the spaghetti in half and lay it over the top of the meatballs. Add water, marinara sauce, red wine, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning over the top. At this point, give it a little stir making sure to work a little sauce around all of the dry noodles. If the noodles are not covered in water, add another cup or 2 of water just until the sauce reaches the same height as the pasta. Place the lid on the instant pot and turn the pot to manual – high-pressure mode. Set the timer for 6 minutes.
Once the Instant Pot is done cooking, let it release pressure on its own for 5 minutes and then manually release the pressure. When the pressure is released, open the lid and use a fork to break up and noodles that might be stuck together If the pasta is not cooked enough, just turn the instant pot to saute and let cook with the lid off for a few more minutes until the pasta is done. (Please note that as the pasta sits in the warm sauce is will continue cooking, so be sure to leave the pasta a little on the firm side)
Use tongs or pasta server to stir the meatballs, pasta, and sauce together and serve!
For more recipes visit wineandhotdish.com!
