While pasta has always been a quick fix dinner, it becomes even more hands-free when you cook noodles and sauce in the electric pressure cooker. Add this Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese to your monthly meal plan; it’s a simple, hands-free dinner you can enjoy on the regular!
Once you’ve tried this meaty pasta dish, be sure to try Cream Cheese Pasta and Instant Pot Mac and Cheese. You’ll find yourself enjoying pasta-focused instant pot recipes more often for their simple ease! They are great budget-friendly meals for kids.
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I already knew that the Instant Pot did a great job cooking rice, beans, and chicken, and Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs are amazing. But man! Once I started cooking pasta in the pressure cooker? Wow!
Prepping Instant Pot Pasta has become one of my favorite wasy to get pasta cooked and sauced and ready for eating. It’s so nice for a quick weeknight dinner, but a veritable game changer when I’m doing a Lunchtime Meal Prep.
This Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese is one of my favorite one pot pasta recipes, making it easy to cook at home which in turn saves us so much money eating out. You can easily dress it up for a Romantic Dinner at Home.
Why Make This
It’s affordable. When we were paying off 60k in debt, it was important to me to find meals we loved that didn’t cost a lot of money. Pasta is always a winning dish that feels special, but doesn’t cost a fortune.
It’s delicious. This Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese is similar to lasagna in a bowl. The sausage and spices blend well into the sauce. The pasta absorbs all those flavors as it cooks. The addition of both mozzarella and parmesan gives it a creamy texture that is just out of this world.
It’s an easy, one pot dinner. I love it that this pasta recipe cooks in the same pot as it’s sauced in. No messing with a strainer or colander or risking spilling water everywhere. This is a great dish to take to new parents.
It’s a hands-free meal. I love being able to “set it and forget it”. This dish cooks without any fussing or stirring of pots. Just don’t forget it too long. It cooks quickly, so stay nearby for the beep so you don’t overcook your pasta.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese:
bulk Italian sausage – You can use sweet, mild, or spicy sausage for this dish as well as all the variations of pork, turkey, or plant-based sausage. Choose your favorite.
onion – You just need 1 chopped onion, about 1 cup. Remember that you can freeze onions if you buy a bag and won’t use them all right away.
marinara sauce – You can use a commercial bottled spaghetti sauce or something like our homemade Marinara Sauce.
extra herbs and spices – To jazz things up just a bit, I add some dried basil and red pepper flakes.
small tube pasta – You can use cavatappi, caserecce, rigatoni, or penne pasta in this Instant Pot Pasta recipe. If spaghetti is all you have, you may want to break it in half so that it lays flat in the pot.
water – You’ll need just enough water to cover hte pasta. The noodles will absorb the starchy pasta water so there’s no need to drain them.
chopped kale or baby spinach – I like to add a bit of greens to my Instant Pot Pasta. If you prefer you can stir in frozen peas at the end as well.
cheese – Both shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan add a creamy texture to this dish.
Variations
- For dairy-free eaters or kids who don’t like cheese, just omit the cheese or scoop out a few portions for them before adding the cheese.
- For folks who like it spicy: You can increase the spice by using hot Italian sausage or adding more red pepper flakes.
- To make this meatless: simply omit the sausage and add a bit of olive oil to the pot before sautéing the onion.
- To have more veggies: Feel free to add more chopped spinach or swap in chopped kale. I’ve done it both ways and it’s delicious. You can also add chopped carrot and celery when you add the onions. Leftover Air Fryer Asparagus is delicious chopped and stirred in.
Step-by-Step Instructions
This dish is super simple to prepare, making it ideal for a weekly feature in your meal plan! Here’s how to make Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese:
- Lay out your ingredients. Chop the onion and spinach. Shred the cheese. Measure out the spices.
- In the pressure cooker insert, place the sausage and onion. Cook on the sauté function until cooked through. Add the pasta sauce and spices.
- Add the pasta and enough water to cover the pasta, about 3 cups water.
- Secure the lid and set the machine to manual. Set the minutes according to ½ the recommended cooking time plus 1 minute.
- When the cycle is complete, do an instant pressure release. It’s important to do a quick release here. A natural release will give you very soggy noodles. The pasta will look very soupy, but after a few stirs, it will start to thicken up.
- Stir in the spinach, stirring well to combine. Then stir in the cheese. Serve immediately.
- Refrigerate leftovers promptly and use within 4 days.
FAQs
For decades we were told that you needed to cook pasta in an abundant amount of salted, boiling water. But then a few years ago, I heard reputable sources talking about one-pot pasta and/or cooking pasta in very little water. Turns out the starch isn’t all that bad for the dish after all.
Cooking pasta in the instant pot is similar to a one-pot pasta dish, only done in the instant pot. You need to make sure the sauce is thin enough to come to a boil, else it will burn on the bottom of the pot. Otherwise, it’s pretty simple and straightforward. Cover the pasta with liquid, cook for half the time on the noodles package PLUS one minute, do a quick release, stir and you’re good to go.
Instant Pot Pasta should cook for half the cooking time on the package plus one minute. So if the pasta package says to cook for 10 minutes, you’ll cut that time in half (5) and add one minute, for a total cookign time of 6 minutes.
Yes. You must do a quick release as soon as the cooking time is ended. Otherwise the noodles will get mushy.
Stirring releases starch which in turn makes the noodles mushy. Don’t stir the noodles until after the cooking time has ended.
More Great Instant Pot Recipes
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Instant Pot Pasta with Sausage and Cheese
Equipment
- Electric pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 lb bulk Italian sausage
- 1 onion chopped for 1 cup
- 24 oz marinara sauce
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 lb short tube pasta
- 3 cup water
- 2 cup chopped kale or baby spinach
- 8 oz mozzarella cheese (shredded) (2 cups)
- 2 oz Parmesan cheese (shredded) (½ cup)
Instructions
- In the pressure cooker insert, place the sausage and onion. Cook on the sauté function until cooked through.1 lb bulk Italian sausage, 1 onion
- Add the pasta sauce and spices. Add the pasta and enough water to cover the pasta, about 3 cups water.24 oz marinara sauce, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, 1 lb short tube pasta, 3 cup water
- Secure the lid and set the machine to manual. Set the minutes according to ½ the recommended cooking time plus 1 minute.
- When the cycle is complete, do an instant pressure release. The pasta will look very soupy, but after a few stirs, it will start to thicken up.
- Stir in the kale, stirring well to combine. Then stir in the cheese. Serve immediately.2 cup chopped kale, 8 oz mozzarella cheese (shredded), 2 oz Parmesan cheese (shredded)
Notes
- For dairy-free eaters or kids who don’t like cheese, just omit the cheese or scoop out a few portions for them before adding the cheese.
- For folks who like it spicy: You can increase the spice by using hot Italian sausage or adding more red pepper flakes.
- To make this meatless: simply omit the sausage and add a bit of olive oil to the pot before sautéing the onion.
- To have more veggies: Feel free to add more chopped spinach or swap in chopped kale. I’ve done it both ways and it’s delicious. You can also add chopped carrot and celery when you add the onions.
Nutrition
This post was originally published on February 4, 2020. It has been updated for content and clarity.
C Healy
A hit in our household. Dead simple instruction and economical ingredients. A winner!
Eva Lyons
I’m wondering if anyone has tried this with gf pasta. My husband has celiac so we are a gluten free household. Gf pasta tends to throw off an unbelievable amount of starch, and go from uncooked to mush in seconds. I’m thinking that depending on what grain or legume your gf pasta was made from, amounts of pasta, water and timing would be vastly different. Would LOVE to know anyones results with this!
Lynn
I have not tried this recipe with gluten free pasta, but I have others Instant Pot pasta recipes. I have found that it really varies with the recipe and the brand of pasta. I have found that corn-based pasta works best in the Instant Pot, but even that can be hit or miss in recipes. I make my Instant Pot Mac and Cheese all the time with a corn based gluten free pasta. I have tried other Instant Pot recipes though and used gluten free pasta and they had a terrible texture. This is probably worth trying with gluten free pasta, the texture just might be quite a bit different. I am not sure that helps and answer your question, but I hope it does. . https://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/instant-pot-macaroni-and-cheese/
Eva Lyons
Thank you! Will give it a try!
Julia M
This recipe is not only fast and easy, but also delicious!
Thanks Jessica!
Colleen
This looks so good. I love my Instant Pot but made spaghetti once and hated it. To me it tasted like canned pasta, similar to Chef Boyardee. Do you find this to have a similar taste?
Jessica Fisher
We are very anti-Chef Boyardee here. No way would my husband allow it. LOL! Make sure your sauce is not sweet and perhaps go down one minute on the cook time to ensure that it’s more al dente than soft. That should help. I’ve never done spaghetti. Can only vouch for short pastas.
Amelia wright
What is the 1/2 reccomend time referring to? How would I double it? My family needs 2 lbs of pasta and 2lbs of sausage(family of 11).
Jessica Fisher
1/2 what the package of pasta says. Noodle sizes and brands vary so you’ll have to do the math based on the noodle package you have. If it says 10 minutes, then half that (5) and add one minute. So that would be 6 minutes to cook it. I’ve not done more than a pound of pasta so I can’t give any advice on a double batch.
Paul
What do you mean by set to manual?
My instant pot doesn’t have a manual button so I’m doing it on the pressure cooker setting.
Jessica Fisher
That should be fine.
Leslie
Is there a way to make this in a crock pot?