WHY, WHY, WHY have I waited so long to get the Instant Pot? It’s become an obsession and every meal I make from not until forever will be made in it. Donating my slow cooker and moving forward with the Instant Pot because it does everything. You can sauté your veggies, brown your meat, pressure cook chicken in like 10 minutes and shred it apart like it’s been slow-cooking all day, you can slow cook, etc… Here is why I REALLY appreciate it though. If I’m on top of my game and I want to go out all day with my kids, I can set it and forget it on slow cook mode. If I’m behind and slacking and everyone is starving, I can whip something up in a flash. Best of both worlds.
Okay so here is how I made my spaghetti and meatballs last night. I only used the Instant Pot for the sauce, I bake my meatballs but you CAN do them in the Instant Pot if you want.
For the Sauce:
Sauté half of a diced yellow or white onion with olive oil on the Sauté mode. It will beep when they are translucent 🙌🏻
3 cans of San Marzano whole tomatoes, use a hand blender or regular blender to make them into a sauce. This part is tricky, don’t blend the crap out of them so they come out like water but instead pulse it so you still get some texture. Also, if you don’t have access to San Marzano tomatoes, I prefer Hunts.
Add your tomato sauce to the Instant Pot and stir the onions around. At this point I add salt. I start with one tablespoon because if it’s not enough, you can always add more.
Add fresh basil to taste, I like a lot, around two handfuls of leaves!
Close up your Instant Pot and press Pressure Cook, adjust to Medium for 25 minutes. Once it is done, open it up and taste it and add more salt according to your taste. You can then close it back up and set the Instant Pot to Keep Warm until you’re ready for dinner!
For the meatballs:
Here is what you need:
- 1 lb. of ground beef, I use 90/10
- 1 cup of bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons of pesto
- 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
- (optional) 1/3 cup of freshly grated parmesan
Here is what you do:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet
- Mix all of the ingredients together and make little patties in your hand about the size of your palm
- Place the meatballs in the pre-heated oven of 425 for about 25/30 minutes, until they crisp up and are cooked through