Instant Pot Spaghetti

This is based on this recipe, but made only with things you can find in Costco. My fiancé and I have made this at least weekly for the last 8 months and we love how it turns out.

Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 kg ground beef (pre-cooked, or see section on browning it)

3 1/4 cups water

2 teaspoons salt

a small amount of pepper

4 heaping teaspoons of garlic

1/2 cup butter

1/4 kg spaghetti noodles

1 jar of pasta sauce (about 870ml)

If you want it to be more spicy, add more pepper. Too much can make it hard to eat. Only experiment with the pepper amount after you've made this and decided there's not enough pepper.

Preparation

Put the ground beef in the instant pot. Put the water in the instant pot. Put the salt in the instant pot. Put the pepper in the instant pot. Put the garlic in the instant pot. Put the butter in the instant pot.

Stir for about 30 seconds, or until the garlic looks like it's distributed about evenly in the pot.

Take the spaghetti noodles and break them in half. Place about a third of one half one direction, the second third another, and the last yet another. Repeat this for the other half of the pasta. This helps to not clump it together when it's cooking.

Look at the package of spaghetti noodles. It should say something like "Ready in X minutes" with a large number. Take that number and subtract two from it. If you have a pasta that says it's cooked for 7 minutes, you will cook it for 5 minutes. If you have a pasta that says it's cooked for 9 minutes, you will cook it for 7 minutes.

Put the lid on the instant pot, seal it and ensure the pressure release valve is set to "sealing". Hit the "manual" button and select the number you figured out above.

Leave the instant pot alone for 10 minutes after it is done. This lets the pressure release naturally.

Use your serving utensil to open the pressure release valve. Stir and wait 3-5 minutes to serve. This makes 5 servings, but could be extended to more if you carefully ration it.

Serve hot with salt or parmesan cheese.

Browning Ground Beef

Browing ground beef is the act of cooking it all the way through so it is safe to eat. It's called "browing" it because the ground beef will turn a grayish brown when it is fully cooked.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

The ground beef you want to brown

Preparation

Take the lid off of the instant pot. Cover the bottom of the pan in olive oil. Sprinkle the salt over the olive oil. Place the ground beef in the instant pot on top of the olive oil and salt.

Press the "sauté" button on your instant pot and use a spatula to break the ground beef into smaller chunks while it warms up. Mix the ground beef while it cooks. The goal is to make sure that all of the red parts turn grayish brown.

This will take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

If you are using this ground beef for the above spaghetti recipe, you don't need to remove it from the instant pot. You can store extra ground beef in the fridge for use later.

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This article was posted on M02 03 2020. Facts and circumstances may have changed since publication. Please contact me before jumping to conclusions if something seems wrong or unclear.

Series: recipes