I love a good pasta sauce and this Instant Pot Bolognese sauce recipe has become of my go-to favorite recipes lately.
We do have a Slow Cooker Bolognese sauce that is also delicious, but I have been using my Instant Pot more and more and love how easy it is to make this sauce with pressure cooking.
If you are looking for more Instant Pot recipes, click here.
We will keep adding more and more each week (with an Instant Pot cookbook coming out in January 2021!).
Related Recipe: Looking for more sauce? Try our easy homemade Salsa Bechamel Recipe (Basic White Sauce)
What is bolognese?
Bolognese is a ground meat based sauce that comes from a place called Bologna, Italy, which is where it gets its name.
Traditional bolognese sauce is not the same thing as spaghetti or marinara sauce. Marinara is a tomato based sauce filled with herbs and occasionally vegetables.
Bolognese is a meat based sauce that has just a little bit of tomato for flavor – the meat is what this sauce is all about.
So if meaty sauce is your thing, then so is bolognese! Who doesn’t love a classic Italian meat sauce?
What kind of meat is used to make bolognese?
Classic bolognese sauce is traditionally made with minced beef or pork.
Today I am using a sweet turkey sausage, but Italian ground sausage is also delicious. You can also use ground beef, ground turkey, or ground pork.
Choose your favorite – they will all taste delicious in this dish.
Ingredients needed for Instant Pot Bolognese:
- 1 pound Italian sausage (I used turkey sausage)
- 3 Tablespoons minced onion flakes
- 4 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
How to make Instant Pot Bolognese:
Step 1: Turn Instant Pot to sauté setting and add sausage when pot is hot.
Brown sausage and break up as it cooks (I used a Chop-Stir to break up my sausage).
Step 2: Add in other ingredients and mix until combined.
Step 3: Place lid on Instant Pot, move valve to “sealing” and press the “manual” button. Set timer for 20 minutes and let it do it’s magic!
It will take a few minutes to come to pressure, then it will start the countdown timer from 20 minutes.
Most bolognese recipes will simmer for many hours (our slow cooker recipe simmers for 8 hours!), but the Instant Pot will give you that all-day simmered flavor and texture in just 20 minutes.
That’s why I love this little kitchen appliance!!
Step 4: Once the 20 minutes of cook time are over, do a “quick release” by moving the valve on top to vent.
Once all the pressure has released and the pin has dropped, remove the lid and stir the sauce.
Enjoy!
What do I serve this bolognese sauce over?
Any kind of pasta will do!
This bolognese is a hearty meat sauce, so keep that in mind (you might want a thicker noodle to hold more of the sauce).
If you are watching your carbs, this sauce would also be delicious over zoodles (zucchini noodles) or spaghetti squash.
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What to serve with bolognese:
We love serving this Instant Pot Bolognese with our Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread and Fresh Italian Green Salad.
What Instant Pot do I use?
I have the Instant Pot LUX 6 Quart 6-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cooker. It’s basically 6 appliances in 1 – pressure cooker, rice cooker, saute, steamer, cake maker, and warmer.
If you are new to using your Instant Pot, I would highly recommend checking out these 3 easy recipes that you can make in your Instant Pot:
How to turn this into a freezer meal:
- Cook the sausage and place in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag or other freezer-safe container.
- Add in the onion flakes, minced garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, basil, fennel seed, salt, and ground pepper into the bag. Let the bag cool down (if still hot from the cooked sausage). Place freezer bag into freezer and it will last up to 90 days.
- When ready to use, dump ingredients from bag into Instant Pot (if it won’t come out, run the bag under hot water so that you can remove/peel off the frozen bag). Add 1 cup of water in with the frozen food. Place the lid on top, move the valve to SEALING, and press the MANUAL button. Set timer for 25 minutes. Do a QUICK RELEASE when the timer is done. Follow the rest of the instructions as written.
Looking for more freezer meals just like this? Click here for our top 100 Instant Pot Freezer Meals!
Check out our other favorite Instant Pot recipes:
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Instant Pot 7 Can Tortilla Soup
- Instant Pot Chicken Chile Verde
- Instant Pot Potato Soup
- Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
Instant Pot Bolognese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian turkey sausage, or your favorite sausage/ground beef
- 3 Tablespoons minced onion flakes
- 4 teaspoon minced garlic
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- 6 ounces tomato paste, (1 can)
- 1 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- 16 ounces pasta, cooked, (gluten-free pasta will work as well)
- Parmesan cheese, (optional; for topping)
Equipment
Instructions
- Turn Instant Pot to saute setting and add sausage when pot is hot. Brown sausage and break up as it cooks (I used a chop-stir to break up my sausage).
- Add onion flakes, minced garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, oregano, basil, fennel seed, salt and pepper to Instant Pot and mix with turkey sausage.
- Place lid on Instant Pot, move valve to "sealing" and press the "manual" button. Set timer for 20 minutes and let it do it's magic!
- It will take a few minutes to come to pressure, then it will start the countdown timer from 20 minutes.
- Once the 20 minutes of cook time are over, do a "quick release" by moving the valve on top to vent. Once all the pressure has released and the pin has dropped, remove the lid and stir the sauce.
- Serve over cooked pasta and garnish with Parmesan cheese.
Notes
- We love serving this Instant Pot Bolognese with our Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread and Fresh Italian Green Salad.
- Any kind of pasta will work for serving this over! This bolognese is a hearty meat sauce, so keep that in mind (you might want a thicker noodle to hold more of the sauce).
- This sauce would also be delicious over zoodles (zucchini noodles) or spaghetti squash.
- Cook the sausage and place in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag or other freezer-safe container.
- Add in the onion flakes, minced garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano, basil, fennel seed, salt, and ground pepper into the bag. Let the bag cool down (if still hot from the cooked sausage). Place freezer bag into freezer and it will last up to 90 days.
- When ready to use, dump ingredients from bag into Instant Pot (if it won’t come out, run the bag under hot water so that you can remove/peel off the frozen bag). Add 1 cup of water in with the frozen food. Place the lid on top, move the valve to SEALING, and press the MANUAL button. Set timer for 25 minutes. Do a QUICK RELEASE when the timer is done. Follow the rest of the instructions as written.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.This recipe was included in our EASIEST 5 Ingredient Ground Beef recipes video! For more delicious and affordable recipes like this one, check it out!
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I keep getting a burn warning on this. Any advice?
This spaghetti sauce is fabulous!!! It does taste like it’s been simmering for hours.
I also got a burn warning twice. First time took sauce out, cleaned pot, added more liquid and the burn warning came up again. Any suggestions.
I also got a burn message (I tried deglazing before I added the rest of the ingredients).
Once I scraped the bottom a bit more, I restarted it up and the issue was taken care of! It came out DELICIOUS! It will definitely be one of my go to’s for sauce, talk about comfort food! Yummy!
I got the burn message, so I put sauce in another pot and scrubbed the pan. Returned sauce to Instant pot. Again I got the burn notice. Just finished cooking on stove top. It was delicious, but dont use the Instant pot to cook it!
This sauce was DELICIOUS. I had to deglaze the pot before adding anything to the sausage so I used a splash of red wine. Otherwise, I followed this recipe exactly and I’ll be making this again. So good!
First time making bolognese and it was delicious.
I’ve made this twice in the last five days! The first time we used penne, tonight we used cellentini. I use ground beef, and skipped the fennel (cuz I hate it), hubby asked for it again, teenagers both loved it, and the picky 8 year old actually ate it! It’s a new favorite!
I’m trying to learn to love my instant pot. This was a great recipe. We ate it over spaghetti squash.
The best sauce EVER!!!!!