Instant Pot penne pasta with jar sauce and ground beef recipe is an easy one pot meal everyone loves. A little like our Ninja Foodi spaghetti using the pressure cooker function but with different noodles.

If you want to make plain butter or amped up with spaghetti sauce and meat we’ve go the dish for you. Use one as a complete one pot meal and the other as a cheap side dish. After that try our other Instant Pot recipes and enjoy. (post may contain affiliate links)
Instant Pot Penne Pasta Recipe
This works great if you have leftover beef or sausage left over that you don’t want to throw away. I do that a lot when making Instant Pot spaghetti. No sauteeing necessary in that case since they’re precooked, just throw that in. You could make it meatless too. It’s basically a 3 ingredient penne pasta as the base, not counting water.
in Ninja
You don’t have to have this brand of pressure cooker either y’all. If you swear by your Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express I got you. They will work the same way using the high pressure function for either of these creations.
If you are using this multi-cooker you will use the lid that is not attached with the pressure cook button. If you prefer your texture to be softer than usual, add 1 minute. For a bit firmer noodles cook for 1 minute less. It will soften more as it sits though too so keep that in mind.
Yes I have a lot of Instant Pot ground beef recipes on my site. That is because it is the one meat all 5 of us enjoy. Yes we eat a lot of chicken too but it just isn’t as popular. I like having dishes where I can add meat at times to serve right out of the pot, and still make it as a vegetarian option too.
Ingredient Notes
- Ground beef or half beef and half spicy ground sausage is great too
- if it’s already cooked you could skip step one below
- Pasta noodles, small in size is best but the shape is really up to you. It doesn’t matter whether you prefer shells or spiral really.
- Water or broth will give you even more flavor. Just realize that it will alter the flavor and if you don’t use low sodium it may be too salty with the sauce in there too.
- Jar sauce or make homemade Instant Pot spaghetti sauce first and then continue on with steps here if you like. From scratch is always better but will take more time of course, either way works.
Variations
When it comes to what shape you use it really doesn’t matter but should be about the same size. Squiggly shapes, medium size shells or penne are all about the same cook time. Using macaroni noodles I wouldn’t adjust the timing either though. I like those in more tomato based recipes like Instant Pot chili mac or something like that.
with Meatballs
Instead of fresh ground meat you could use frozen meatballs instead, that makes things even easier. You can skip the saute at the beginning part and throw these in at the very bottom, thawed or right out of the freezer.
Parmesan can be added at the end on the top. If you want the more basic recipe you’d just need water, noodles and butter.
This is one of those. You can omit the protein and have a vegetarian spaghetti recipe of sorts. Sprinkle on parmesan cheese or leave dairy free (like my husband needs) when done. Serve with veggies as an easy side dish and you’re ready to serve. Here’s what we used;
Once I got the hang of how much liquid I needed I was able to cook all the things together. If you wanted a sort of version of this using grains instead, give our Instant Pot ground beef and rice too.
If you are making the heartier version listed below with meat, remember that it will continue to thicken as it sits. Also, when you are done cooking anything remember to unplug your pot. It will remain on warm if you don’t and will likely make your food stick to the bottom if it just sits there inside.
In between servings set the lid on again and just let the contents sit and soak in the sauce. It will thicken as it sits.
To make butter noodles in pressure cooker without meat or cheese follow our Instant Pot butter noodles follow the directions in the recipe card in this post. For that you will need.
without sauce
- 3 cups smaller types of pasta like shells or small penne. Egg noodles work too but just remember they will become much softer than others when pressure cooking them.
- 5 cups of water or broth
- Olive oil so the cooked pasta doesn’t stick together when cooking
- Salt and pepper to season
- We just add butter to these but after done you could add your jar of pasta sauce if you didn’t want to cook it together like we share here.
- You just cook for 2 minutes on high pressure with a quick release, super simple.
For more heat try our Instant Pot Mexican casserole with the same sort of noodles if you like, bow tie is fun too.
Ninja Foodi Butter Noodles can be made this way too if you use this pot with the air fryer function too you could melt another layer of cheese on top and brown it nicely. Either way a quick and easy meal everyone loves.
Instant Pot Penne Pasta
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef, or ground sausage
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 24 oz spaghetti sauce
- 1 3/4 c water
- 2 c pasta
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 onion, diced
Instructions
- Set pressure cooker to saute and add olive oil. Add ground beef and break up, include diced onions + garlic and cook until meat is no longer pink on the outside. Then turn pot off. Use wood spatula to scrape any stuck on meat off bottom.
- Pour in sauce and water, then pour pasta on the top and gently submerge into the liquid below. Do NOT stir.
- Seal lid and steam valve and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes. Then do a quick release, lift lid and stir. Serve with shredded parmesan on top.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Pasta in Instant Pot saves quite well. You just want to make sure it is completely cool before transferring it into containers or bags. Then keep in your fridge until the next day or two and reheat in the microwave. Transfer it into a bowl that is heat tolerant and 1 minute stirring halfway thru should do it.
It is about double if that is all you add. If you add a jar of spaghetti sauce that has liquid in it as well so you would just add about the same amount of water as pasta but with the 24 oz. jar of sauce together. I like to use broth instead because it adds more flavor but that is up to you.
Yum! 2 cups of pasta was not enough, so Iโll increase that next time. Also 6 min was too short for rotini. I added half block of cream cheese at the end yummmm!
The recipe was delicious and easy directions. I added 2 cups of penne pasta and next time I will use 2 1/2 cups. I will make my spaghetti/penne pasta in the instant pot from now on.
Awesome glad it was a hit
There is no mention of how much penne to use. (The 3 cups, that another person said was in the written post part is not for this recipe.)
Sorry about that, must have been a busy day, added to be correct now. 2 Cups
The ground beef/spaghetti sauce recipe doesnโt tell how much pasta to use.
@Ellen, above in the written post she mentions 3 cups of pasta.