Instant Pot Bolognese Recipe

5 from 5 votes

nstant Pot Bolognese is a thick, flavorful meat sauce that goes perfectly over pasta. Once you try this, you'll never buy pre-made spaghetti sauce or marinara again!

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Pressurize Time10

Total Time50

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: Instant Pot, Instant Pot Recipe, pasta

Servings:

Calories: 363kcal

Equipment

Instant Pot (or Pressure Cooker)

Ingredients

1 pound Italian turkey sausage or your favorite sausage/ground beef
3 Tablespoons minced onion flakes
4 teaspoons 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)
fresh grated Parmesan cheese (optional; for topping)

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.

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.

Nutrition