Throwback Casserole

Throwback Casserole–cheeseburgers plus spaghetti for the win! This cheesy pasta with beef, dill pickles, ketchup and mustard is perfect for any night of the week and is made fast in your Instant Pot.

Throwback Casserole

The pot was scraped clean on this one! This is like spaghetti meets cheeseburgers and it was really yummy! So, what exactly goes into making it? Imagine tender spaghetti noodles tossed in a rich tomato-based sauce infused with the flavors of a classic cheeseburger—think ground beef, onions, garlic, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. The Instant Pot helps the ingredients to meld together, creating a savory and slightly tangy base that coats each strand of pasta. No cheeseburger would be complete without cheese so generous amounts of shredded cheddar is stirred into the hot pasta, melting into gooey goodness. We are big fans of dill pickles in our house so the addition of pickle juice and diced dill pickles was perfect for us.

This recipe is adapted from Throwback Cheeseburger Casserole on Carrots n’ Cake.

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Lean ground beef–I used 93/7, or ground turkey
• Dry minced onion–or ½ cup diced onion
• Garlic powder–or granulated garlic
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Water
• Better than Bouillon beef base
• Spaghetti–or another type of pasta
• Crushed tomatoes
• Dill pickle juice
• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup
• Yellow mustard
• Dill pickles
• Cheddar cheese-I like sharp

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the beef and break it up. Add in the onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Brown for about 5 minutes. 

Pour in the water and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot. 

Stir in the Better than Bouillon. Break spaghetti in half. Lay it into the pot in a criss cross pattern. Evenly add the tomatoes on top of the spaghetti. Pour in the dill pickle juice. 

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5-10 minutes. Move valve to venting. Remove the lid. 

Stir in the mayo, ketchup, mustard and pickles. 

Add in the cheese.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes/Tips

• Serve with tossed green salad and tomatoes.
• Try adding in a quarter cup of bacon crumbles.
• Try using thousand island dressing in the place of mayonnaise.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 quart pot.
• Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• If you use another type of pasta you may need to adjust the cooking time. Here is the formula: look at the back of the box of pasta and see how many minutes it says to boil the pasta. If it’s 10 minutes you divide that number by 2 (=5) and then subtract 2 minutes. So you would pressure cook for 3 minutes. I usually use a 5-10 minute natural pressure release for pasta.
• Other recipes you can make with dill pickles are Instant Pot Dill Pickle Roast, Instant Pot Dill Pickle Pasta Salad and What’s The Dill Soup.

Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for. 

Print

More Instant Pot spaghetti recipes…

*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.