Instant Pot Penne Pasta

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.

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

1. Ground beef or half beef and half spicy ground sausage is great too
   1. if it’s already cooked you could skip step one below
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

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.

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.