Homemade Pork Ragu Sauce | Instant Pot recipe
Pork Ragu recipe features tender pork cooked to fall-apart perfection in a rich, savory tomato sauce—all made in your Instant Pot for a hearty, comforting meal.
Why you’ll love Pork Ragu: This Instant Pot Pork Ragu is a rich, hearty sauce filled with tender shredded pork that pairs perfectly with your favorite pasta!
Pork Ragu is traditionally simmered for hours to create a rich and flavorful sauce. This Instant Pot Pork Ragu tastes like it has simmered on your stovetop all day, but it’s ready in a fraction of the time!
We wanted an easy recipe where you can just dump all the ingredients and let your Instant Pot do all the work. When its done cooking, you just need to shred the meet and have pasta ready to serve for a delicious, family favorite meal.
Choosing Your Pork
Pork Butt roast is our preferred cut for this recipe. (It is sometimes labeled “Boston butt” in the supermarket.
If you can’t find this cut, you can swap pork shoulder (aka “Picnic shoulder”, just know that the shoulder is often sold with the skin on and it’s less marbled and therefore doesn’t cook up quite as fall-apart tender.)
To Sear or Not to Sear?
Since this sauce already has a longer cook time and is packed with rich flavor, we opted to skip the sear step and go straight to pressure cooking.
However, if you prefer, you can sear the pork before pressure cooking:
Pat the pork dry with paper towels and season as directed in step 1. Then, select Sauté and, when hot, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the cooking pot. Sear pork on one side until it releases easily from the pot. Add the beef both and use a spoon to scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pot. Then continue with step 2 as directed.
Flavoring the Sauce
Since the other homemade pasta sauces on our site are fresh and simple (just tomato, garlic, basil, and salt), we wanted this one to be a rich tomato sauce with a different flavor profile. We opted for mushrooms to boost the umami flavor, fresh thyme for an earthy peppery flavor, and celery seeds to add mirepoix flavor without adding the texture of chopped celery.
Then, we added just a bit of red pepper flakes for the flavor without adding too much heat.
In this recipe, I divide the crushed tomatoes—adding one can before cooking to flavor the meat and the second can after cooking to avoid the burn notice. This makes for a full-flavored homemade tomato sauce.
Note: This recipe is really flexible! If there are herbs or spices you love in your ragu (like oregano, basil, or Italian seasoning), feel free to swap out some of the thyme and celery seed.
Notes on the Pasta
Since this ragu cooks up thick and meaty, I like to serve it with an easy-to-eat pasta that has lots of ridges or grooves for the sauce to get in. We opted for rigatoni, but cavatappi or penne rigate (with ridges) would work well.
I know some people swear by tagliatelle or pappardelle pasta for ragu, but those longer flat noodles are messier to eat (in my experience).
Give me a short noodle any day, but use what works best for you!
Tip: Set a timer to put the pasta water on to boil about 20 minutes before you need to start cooking the noodles. Be sure to salt the water before adding the pasta.
Do I need to simmer after cooking?
The pork will release quite a bit of liquid during the pressure cooking process. However, you need the full 1/2 cup beef broth for the Instant Pot to reach pressure, so you can’t reduce the liquid any further.
The sauce will thicken a bit as it cools; however, I recommend simmering the sauce for 5 to 10 minutes to help it thicken to a hearty ragu texture.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
This recipe yields enough sauce for 2 pounds of pasta (3 cups of ragu per pound of pasta; ~6 cups total sauce).
For my family of 5, this is enough to eat half of the sauce with the main meal and freeze the remaining sauce for a future quick dinner.
- To refrigerate: Allow to cool, then transfer to an air-tight container and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- To freeze: Place the sauce in a freezer-safe ziplock bag or silicone container and freeze solid. Good for up to 3 months.
- To reheat: For best results, I like to remove the sauce from the freezer and allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Reheat on the stovetop or in the microwave on medium heat.
Do you LOVE this recipe?
Leave us a review below to tell us why!
Pork Ragu Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless pork butt roast trimmed and cut into three large pieces
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup beef broth reduced sodium
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 carrots peeled and finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh white mushrooms
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley plus more for garnish
- 2 cans 14 oz crushed tomatoes, divided
- 1 to 2 pounds cooked pasta for serving
- Freshly grated parmesan cheese or mozzarella cheese for serving
Instructions
- Mix together the salt and pepper, and rub it in place on the pork roast.
- Add the olive oil, beef broth, vinegar, onion, carrots, and garlic to the bottom of the cooking pot. Place the roast into the cooking pot, in a single layer.
- Add the mushrooms, thyme, celery seeds, and red pepper flakes. Add the tomato paste and 1 can of crushed tomatoes on top, BUT DO NOT STIR.
- Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 60 minutes cook time.
- When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick release.
- When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. Remove the meat from the cooking pot and shred with two forks, discarding excess fat as you shred. Select Saute and allow the sauce to simmer while you shred the meat, stirring occasionally.
- Discard the thyme sprigs from the cooking pot. (Optional: If you would like a smooth sauce, use an immersion blender to puree the carrots until smooth.) Add the parsley and the remaining can of crushed tomatoes. Return the shredded meat to the pot.
- If desired, simmer until your sauce reaches your desired consistency (we did ours for about 5 minutes).
- Serve immediately over individual bowls of pasta, topped with parmesan cheese, mozzarella, and garnished with additional parsley if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
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Made this tonight .. thanks for pointing me to it! I used boneless sirloin chops, which were quite lean so started by sautéing some chopped pancetta to add an additional flavor and some of the fat that would have been in the suggested meat cut. Served over pan-fried polenta rounds. Just enough left for a hearty lunch tomorrow.
Sounds like a delicious way to change it up. Thanks for sharing Michele!
Hi Barbara. Could this recipe be doubled? I’m very new to my instant pot and I am hoping I could make this and freeze at least half. Thank you!
Hi Stacey – Yes, you shouldn’t have any problem doubling this recipe. Your cook time will be the same. I like the idea of freezing half for later.
I recently bought the new Instant Pot and I am loving it. I’ve been slowly working on learning how to convert my slow cooker recipes and other family favorites over to pressure cooked meals. This site has become my go to for inspiration. So far I’ve been pretty successful with my attempts with the latest being converting a Martha Stewart recipe to pressure cooker friendly.
This recipe is on our “to try” list and I’m really looking forward to it.
Thanks for maintaining such a great site.
What a great looking recipe-this looks like something my Nana used to make back when I was growing up and she simmered it all day on the stove. The pressure cooker saves SO much time.
Thank you Barbara and Debby.
Barbara, thank you for featuring my recipe. I love all the recipes you share on your blog, several of which I’ve made. The more I try pressure cooking, the more I appreciate the delicious savory and sweet recipes we can enjoy in a much faster way. Speed cooking!
Can bone-in browned pork (country-style spare ribs) be used in this recipe?
Yes, Debby used bone-in country-style ribs and cut out the bone.