This rich and hearty Instant Pot Bolognese sauce is made with red wine and served over spaghetti or your favorite pasta. This is a great freezer-friendly recipe that is perfect for a meal prep and easily comes together in 1 hour in a pressure cooker.
This Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce is one of my most favorite recipes that I love to serve with spaghetti or other type of pasta. Thanks to the pressure cooker, the cooking time is cut to at least half the time, while it tastes like it was slowly simmered for a few hours to perfection.
The secret ingredient in this recipe is a splash of heavy cream that brings all the flavors together by reducing the acidity of the sauce and making it creamier. Also, I love using red wine, which helps to create a deep rich flavor, while the carrots and celery bring up the sweetness.
Using red wine in sauces and gravy is one of my favorite ways to enrich flavors and aroma of the whole dish. Because we reduce the wine until all the alcohol is fully evaporated, we are left only with beautiful savory fragrance.
I use red wine in a number of my recipes, like Red Wine Braised Short Ribs, Instant pot Lamb Shanks, Easy Shepherd’s Pie Recipe, Instant Pot Boneless Short Ribs, and others.
Table of contents
Why you will love the recipe
Quick and Easy. While the classic Bolognese sauce usually takes hours to slowly simmer, a pressure cooker helps us to reduce the cooking time. So, you can make the whole recipe in just 1 hour from start to finish, and the pressure cooker will do most of the work.
Lots of Flavor! This is really one of the best sauces I’ve tried and it’s packed with flavors and aroma!
Great for Meal Prep. You can easily double the recipe and freeze. So, when you don’t feel like cooking, you can easily defrost it (instruction are below), cook fresh pasta, and serve!
How to make it
Press the Sauté button and set it to high setting. Add 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 small diced onion. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until its soft and translucent.
Then add 1 diced carrot and 1 diced celery rib. Cook for another 5 minutes until they are softened.
Add 1 pound ground beef and the seasoning (1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp red pepper flakes, and ¼ tsp cinnamon) and cook until the meat is cooked through, about 7-10 minutes.
When done, add 2 tbsp tomato pasted and stir. Then add ½ cup red wine and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the wine reduces in half.
Add 28 oz crushed tomatoes and stir everything in.
Close the lid and make sure that the venting knob is sealed. Cook on manual high pressure for 20 minutes. When done, let it naturally release the pressure for 10 minutes.
After that, you can open the lid and press the sauté button again. Add ¼ cup heavy cream, stir and let simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens to the desired consistency.
Serve over your favorite pasta or spaghetti. Top with some grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley or fresh basil.
Tips for best results
- Ground Beef. I prefer to use 85% lean meat as it has the best balance of fat and meat and provides great flavor. Also, you can use between 1 and 1 ½ pound of meat in this recipe.
- Cinnamon. Don’t skip this ingredient! While many people think you can use cinnamon only in baking, it’s very popular in savory dishes, especially in tomato and meat sauces in Europe. It helps to highlight the flavors and brings out the warmth.
- Red Wine. I prefer to use a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon, like Decoy (not sponsored) in this recipe. It has a rich deep flavor that balances very well with the red sauce. Also, you won’t taste any alcohol in the recipe. After the wine is reduced, you will be left only with the aroma and flavor, and all the alcohol will be evaporated.
- Crushed tomatoes. Fire roasted crushed tomatoes are my favorite in any tomato sauce. They also add extra flavor and smoky aroma to the dish.
- Heavy cream. After the sauce is cooked, it still has a little bit of acidity. Heavy cream helps to reduce the acidity from wine and the tomatoes and balance the flavors.
Stove top option
If you don’t have an instant pot, you can make this Bolognese sauce on the stove top in your Dutch Oven or a deep skillet with a heavy bottom. Cook everything according to the instructions. The only difference will be the cooking time. It will need to slowly simmer covered with the lid for about 1 ½-2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
When the sauce is completely cooled off, you can transfer it to an air-tight container and refrigerate for 4-5 days.
Yes! This recipe is perfect for meal prepping! You can freeze it in an air-tight container or a freezer-friendly bag for up to 3 months. To thaw, just leave it in the fridge overnight, then reheat when ready to serve.
To reheat in a pressure cooker, just add the desired amount of sauce in the pot, press the Sauté button and reheat it like you would do it in a regular sauce pan on the stove top. Don’t forget to stir the sauce so it doesn’t burn.
Yes. You can easily substitute ground beef with ground lamb or even ground turkey.
Red wine just adds another layer of rich flavor to this dish. If you want to skip this ingredient, you can substitute it with 1 cup beef or chicken broth and 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce.
More Comfort Meals Ideas:
- Old Fashioned Goulash Recipe
- Chicken Broccoli Ziti
- Hawaiian Chicken Recipe
- Turkey Zucchini Meatballs
- Easy Spaghetti Bolognese
- Tortellini in Tomato Sauce
- Instant Pot Beef Stew Recipe
- Oven Baked Meatballs
- Baked Cheese Tortellini
- Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta
- Creamy Vegetable Pasta
- Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce
Easy Instant Pot Bolognese Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 large carrot diced
- 1 celery rib diced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ½ cup red wine
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
- ¼ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Press the Sauté button and set it to high setting. Add 2tbsp olive oil and 1 small diced onion. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until it's soft and translucent.
- Then add 1 diced carrot and 1 diced celery rib. Cook for another 5 minutes until they are softened.
- Add 1 pound ground beef and the seasoning (1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, ¼ tsp black pepper, ¼ tsp red pepper flakes, and ¼ tsp cinnamon) and cook until the meat is cooked through, about 7-10 minutes.
- When done, add 2 tbsp tomato pasted and stir. Then add ½ cup red wine and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the wine reduces in half.
- Add 28 oz crushed tomatoes and stir everything in.
- Close the lid and make sure that the venting knob is sealed. Cook on manual high pressure for 20 minutes. When done, let it naturally release the pressure for 10 minutes.
- After that, you can open the lid and press the sauté button again. Add ¼ cup heavy cream, stir and let simmer for about 5-10 minutes or until the sauce thickens to the desired consistency.
- Serve over your favorite pasta or spaghetti. Top with some grated Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley or fresh basil.
Video
Notes
- Ground Beef. I prefer to use 85% lean meat as it has the best balance of fat and meat and provides great flavor. Also, you can use between 1 and 1 ½ pound of meat in this recipe.
- Cinnamon. Don’t skip this ingredient! While many people think you can use cinnamon only in baking, it’s very popular in savory dishes, especially in tomato and meat sauces in Europe. It helps to highlight the flavors and brings out the warmth.
- Red Wine. I prefer to use a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon, like Decoy (not sponsored) in this recipe. It has a rich deep flavor that balances very well with the red sauce. Also, you won’t taste any alcohol in the recipe. After the wine is reduced, you will be left only with the aroma and flavor, and all the alcohol will be evaporated.
- Crushed tomatoes. Fire roasted crushed tomatoes are my favorite in any tomato sauce. They also add extra flavor and smoky aroma to the dish.
- Heavy cream. After the sauce is cooked, it still has a little bit of acidity. Heavy cream helps to reduce the acidity from wine and the tomatoes and balance the flavors.
- How to store. When the sauce is completely cooled off, you can transfer it to an air-tight container and refrigerate for 4-5 days.
- How to freeze. This recipe is perfect for meal prepping! You can freeze it in an air-tight container or a freezer-friendly bag for up to 3 months. To thaw, just leave it in the fridge overnight, then reheat when ready to serve.
I followed this recipe exactly as written. However, my instapot immediately registered it was burning and turned off. I had to finish on the stove. Has anyone else had this problem?
This happened to me too.
I LOVE this recipe! Made it twice this week with remaindered prime rib, left over from the Christmas holiday. Instead of the ground beef portion of the recipe, I just used my immersion blender in a bowl of cubed up prime rib and made the meat ground up.
Thank you so much, Matthew! This is such a great idea to use prime rib! I’m sure it added amazing flavor!
Bolognese is such a classic dish that never fails and never disappoints. I never used a pressure cooker for bolognese, but now I definitely will. Your recipe sounds so easy. Effortless. I’m going to add this to my weekly menu. Thanks!
My favorite time of sauce… ever. I mean, really, is there anything better than this? Fantastic instructions, too.
A great bolognese recipe is always a good find. Thanks so much for making my job easier.
The best way to make homemade bolognese bc it doesn’t have to simmer on the stove all day but still tastes amazing!
I love this sped-up version of a classic bolognese! I LOVE that this is made in the Instant Pot! You still get all of the amazing depth of flavor in such a quick time! Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe! It’s such a time saver!
This looks really delicious, and I am so excited to make this for everyone.
Classic Bolognese really does take a while to cook! Making it in the Instant Pot is a great idea!
I love how quick and easy the Instant Pot makes this bolognese recipe! I’ll definitely be making it more often now!
Love that this cooks in the Instant Pot — makes it so convenient! It’s wonderfully flavored, and the wine adds the perfect depth.
We all need some great pasta sauce recipes. This looks fantastic. Perfect for batch cooking.