I just made an Instant Pot Pasta meal, Cheesy Penne, that my family thought was delicious.
I got my first Instant Pot last January, long after so many other people were raving about it, I was like meh it’s just another small appliance to take up room in my kitchen. After the first meal I made… I was hooked! Swing around a year later and I was wanting a second one 😉 so I put it on my Christmas list. Yes I wanted one of those coveted Star Wars models, but my daughter ended up winning a Duo60 at her office Christmas party, so she gave me that one. Not to be defeated I went to Etsy and ordered an R2-D2 wrap for it. So a new series of blog posts are born called “Droid Makes Dinner.” This will hopefully be a collection of many recipes I’ll share that “Artoo” helps me make 😉
I added lots of spices and chicken broth to this recipe, which gave the dish a nice depth of flavor. You may find a lot of pasta recipes in the Instant Pot look really watery, I’ve had that experience before also, but this one does not have excess liquid so you get great sauce coverage but it’s not ‘soupy’ at all.
- 3 tsps minced garlic
- 2 tsps oregano
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp seasoning salt
- ½ tsp onion salt
- 28 oz meat flavored spaghetti sauce
- 14 oz chicken broth
- 16 oz of dry penne pasta
- 6 oz shredded medium cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup of milk
- Add all the spices, spaghetti sauce and broth into the Instant Pot bowl and mix it up.
- Pour in the penne, smooth it out so it’s in a single layer on the top and the rest is in the sauce but do not mix or stir, it's okay that some of it is visible on top of the sauce. It is important that you do not stir the pasta in, you will get a burn notice if you do that, you just want the noodles to sink in naturally and spread the top ones evenly.
- Put your lid on, and turn your knob to seal. High Pressure for 9 minutes. Do a controlled quick release when you are done. (That means vent it out slowly, when it starts splattering or bubbling, close it up let it settle for about ½ a minute and then continue venting, do this whenever you see any liquid being released)
- When pressure is fully released, remove the lid and stir that pasta all up in the sauce.
- Add the cheese a bit at a time and mix in, when it starts to get super stringy add your milk and stir. Then continue to add the rest of your cheese.
- Serve on plates with additional shredded cheese as garnish.
Tammy Litke is a Dallas blogger, blogging since 2008. She loves to watch movies, play video games, spend time in the kitchen, and travel. Between recipes and reviews you’ll find many helpful and some just plain funny posts on her blog. Welcome, pull up a chair and stay for a while!
Any excuse to eat good pasta! We have our old crock pot, but we have yet to get an instant pot….