This easy instant pot bolognese is perfect for busy weeknights when you need to get a simple, delicious, and satisfying meal on the table with no fuss. Splashes of red wine, fresh diced mirepoix vegetables, bay leaves, and pantry spices turn your favorite jar of marinara into a meaty sauce that makes a delicious dinner in minutes.

The best part about cooking with the instant pot is the effortless ability to get deep rich flavor in a short amount of time. You just put everything together, set it, and forget it! The key to flavoring this delicious bolognese sauce is the use of a fresh ingredients that make up the foundation of flavors…

An Easy Instant Pot Bolognese with Layers of Flavor

Freshly diced carrots, celery, onion, and colorful bell pepper help to build up character and flavor that stands up to the ground beef we’ll add in later on. Minced garlic and dry spices like garlic powder, onion powder, dry parsley, and some bay leaves tie everything together in this hearty meat sauce.

Splashes of red wine give the sauce a deep, layered, slow cooked flavor that makes this easy instant pot spaghetti bolognese a weeknight winner.

Ladle this easy homemade meat sauce over spaghetti noodles, your favorite pasta, or quick cooked cheese tortellini like we did here!

Start With your Instant Pot Sauté Setting

To get this easy instant pot bolognese going with lots of flavor, start by adding a few diced vegetables to the pot. Begin by plugging in your instant pot pressure cooker and hitting the sauté setting. Wait a few minutes for the pot to heat up. Wait for the indicator on the screen to switch from on to hot. Once the screen reads hot you’re ready to start cooking the vegetables.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the bottom of the pan. Toss in diced carrots along with diced celery, diced onions, and diced bell pepper. Give everything a stir to combine and continue cooking under the sauté function until vegetables are tender and softened through, about 7 to 8 minutes.

Keep in mind that I am using a small dice on the vegetables so they cook through in little time. The bigger you cut them, the longer they will take to cook down in the pot. To keep this step fairly quick, dice your veggies up into small uniform sizes and toss in. Once the mirepoix veggies are tender, add in minced garlic and stir in. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until garlic is fragrant in the instant pot.

Add Ground Beef To Make a Hearty Satisfying Bolognese Sauce

Now you can add your ground meat to the pot with the vegetables. Break the meat apart evenly with a wooden spoon while it browns and releases juices into the pot.

I use Costco’s lean 15% fat organic grass fed ground beef which works out nicely in this instant pot bolognese sauce.

If you prefer extra lean meat, you can use 8%, 9%, or 10% fat, but I find that the 15% is just enough to maintain moisture, depth, and richness which helps to balance acidity of the tomatoes in this hearty instant pot bolognese sauce. Once the meat is evenly browned and combined with the softened veggies and garlic, sprinkle in some spices.

Season and add Spices Plus a few liquids

Sprinkle in some coarse sea salt, cracked pepper and dried parsley. Add in the garlic powder and onion powder. Drizzle in a bit of Worcestershire sauce along with a splash of dry red wine, and a little bit of stock.

The very first time I made this classic Italian meat sauce in my instant pot, I received a ‘burn notice’ on the indicator screen halfway through cooking. This is due to the fact that there just isn’t enough liquid bubbling away inside. The instant pot is like a hot little steam room inside.

It can’t produce this environment without enough moisture so sometimes you have to help it out a bit! Adding a few extra splashes of liquid helps to bring that extra moisture that your instant pot loves to have for cooking. I find that this helps to resolve the ‘burn notice’ warning during cooking.

Rather than adding plain water, I prefer to add liquids that will contribute additional depth of flavor to the sauce! Enter the hits of Worcestershire, delicious red wine, and flavorful stock.

These little splashes of added flavor bump up the taste in this instant pot spaghetti bolognese recipe while resolving the burn notice issue in a tastier fashion. To offset the extra liquids added, if you prefer the texture of thick sauces, you can switch the pot back to sauté. Do this after the cooking time is up and reduce the sauce for 5 more minutes uncovered to help thicken at the very end.

Splash In your Favorite Jar of good quality Marinara

Coming back to the bolognese sauce in progress, once you’ve added in your dry spices and liquids, take a little help from some marinara! Pour in a jar of your favorite marinara sauce. I like to drizzle in a dash more of fruity olive oil at this point and then toss in 2 or 3 bay leaves. Stir everything together to combine and then cover your instant pot by putting on the lid and twisting into the sealing position. You should hear a little musical sound upon sealing letting you know it’s closed up tight and ready to cook!

Cook Instant Pot Bolognese On High Pressure

Once sealed, press cancel to end the sauté setting. Hit pressure cook and then hit the + plus sign button until the screen shows a cook time of 35 minutes. Hitting the stew/meat setting will also pull up the same cook time. Either one works fine. Pressure cook on high pressure for 35 minutes.

Once the silver pin (known as the float valve or pressure valve) pops straight up, the instant pot electric pressure cooker will have reached the correct pressure level. You’ll then see the screen indicator switch from on to a countdown timer letting you know the cooking process has begun. Now you can prepare the tortellini while the sauce cooks!

Make the Tortellini pasta

Drop your favorite brand of tortellini in large pot of boiling water and cook according to package directions. Cook times can be anywhere from 2 to 9 minutes. Tortellini cooks very quickly and overcooks even faster! Set a short timer to remind you about it! When cook time is up, remove tortellini from pot, strain, and toss in a bowl with some olive oil to help prevent sticking. Cover with a towel and set aside.

Release Pressure Before Opening Lid of instant pot

When cook time is up for the instant pot bolognese sauce, release the pressure from the instant pot. You can do this by hitting the quick steam release button (on the lid of the instant pot) or by letting the pot sit without touching anything at all… It will release the pressure on its own. This is what is known as a natural pressure release. You can do a natural pressure release by letting the pot sit untouched for an additional 20 to 30 minutes before opening.

Adjust Seasonings and Serve Hot!

Once the pressure is released through either one of the methods above, it is now safe to open the lid on the pot. Adjust any seasonings to taste as desired. Reduce, as I mentioned earlier, if desired, to thicken the sauce. Otherwise, serve by pouring generous ladles of our finished bolognese over the fresh pasta. In our case, a tasty 5 cheese tortellini! Garnish with pinches of fresh minced parsley and sprinkles of ground parmesan cheese.

Enjoy this easy bolognese sauce recipe on busy weeknights with a little green salad and some crusty garlic bread on the side for a satisfying weeknight meal! You’ll have a few leftovers for tomorrow and maybe catch a break from cooking so you can actually sit back and enjoy that glass of red wine…

Don’t forget to use some of this delicious bolognese sauce in a leftover pasta casserole with melty mozzarella cheese for an easy dinner the next day!

You Might Also Like…