The flavors you love in a saucy and cheesy baked ziti, made one pot easy using uncooked pasta in an Instant Pot! Round out the meal with sweet tea, a mixed garden salad and some hot garlic bread.

Instant Pot Ziti

To say that I love pasta would be an understatement.

Thankfully so does my hubby, aka The Cajun, so we eat some sort of pasta dish regularly and one of my favorite ways to make pasta is in the Instant Pot!

Now, to clarify, just in case you're happening on my website for the first time, first, welcome! Second, come join us over on our Facebook page because I feature a lot of my past recipes there every day, and third, when I speak of the "Instant Pot," it is often in the context of using it as an electronic pressure cooker, though technically speaking it is a multi-function pot, and it is only one brand of said families of multi-pots. There are many others out there, all of which work with the recipes here designated as "Instant Pot," when used with the pressure cook function.

Back to the subject at hand... I love my homemade baked ziti, which is a slightly southernized version made with the trinity of southern vegetables, a tomato-based sauce that includes Italian sausage tossed with ziti and layered in with tiny beef and sausage meatballs, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Sooo good y'all, but... it can be a bit labor intensive to make, relegating that duty mostly to a lazy weekend.

To counter that time factor, I came up with a faster, tasty skillet version that had the flavor, but with a lot less effort. No tiny meatballs in this one, but I decided to include a little spicy andouille along with diced tomatoes with green chilies for a little extra something, then toss in some cooked ziti and mozzarella and finished with more mozzarella. It's a easy win for a weeknight, but still classic in flavor.

Just inserting a quick reminder here.... that this is a blog, not just a "recipe site," and yes, there is a difference! I want to first thank all of you who have supported my work over the years, but if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips and such in a post, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!

I combined some of those elements to develop this Instant Pot version, because frankly I love, love, love doing pasta in the Instant Pot, but when I poked around the internet to see other versions, none of them met my vision.

What you'll need to make my version:

• An Instant Pot, of course, or any other branded electronic pressure cooker/multi-cooker.
• The trinity of southern cooking - onion, bell pepper and celery - with some garlic.
• Italian sausage - you can use sweet or hot, whatever your preference.
• Some andouille or another milder smoked sausage. 
• A (14.5-ounce) can of stewed tomatoes.
• A 24-ounce jar or can of a quality basic pasta sauce.
• Some water.
• Ziti pasta, uncooked.
• Shredded Mozzarella or mixed Italian cheese blend.
• Salt, pepper, Creole or Cajun seasoning and some red pepper flakes (both of these are optional for a milder version though), Italian seasoning and a little fresh or dried basil for seasonings.

Here's how to make my Instant Pot Ziti! Remember, all measurements are outlined a little further down the page in the recipe text.

Mise en place y'all! Meaning get your veggies chopped up and at the ready. You can prep these the night before too by the way. Just chop them up and put them in a lidded storage container in the fridge.

Set pot to sauté and add the olive oil, onion, bell pepper and celery. Cook for 3 minutes.

While the veggies are sauteing, remove sausage from casings and chop up andouille. I'm using a 5 pack (19 ounce) package of sweet Italian sausage and smoked sausage.

Add sausage to pot, leaving in chunks. Keeping the sausage on the chunky side makes it resemble the meatballs usually found in a baked ziti.

Sauté until sausage is no longer pink. Drain off any excess grease if needed and return to pot. Cancel the sauté mode and make a well in the center of the meat, adding about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water to the pot to scrape up any fond - those browned bits on the bottom of the pot. This will help to avoid the burn warning, so be sure that it is all scraped up!

For my sauce base, I'm using a canned pasta sauce along with a can of stewed tomatoes. Two brands of inexpensive but quality pasta sauce I like to use for my sauce base are Hunt's and Del Monte but use whatever your favorite pasta sauce is! You'll need about 3 cups or so.

Stir in the chopped andouille and garlic.

Cut up the stewed tomatoes in the can using your kitchen shears and add to pot along with pasta sauce and seasonings.

Stir together.

Stir in the pasta.

Push pasta down into the sauce. Pull it away from the edges of the pot and pour another 1/2 cup of the water all around the edges of the pot. This should also help to prevent a burn notice, which can occur with sauces.

Top with remaining water or enough to cover the pasta completely. Push pasta down again if needed, but do not stir. Seal and set for HIGH for 7 minutes.

When time is up, perform a quick release and once pressure is released, carefully open pot.

I didn't use it this time, but if you would like to use cottage cheese or ricotta you can dollop that in spots over the top of the pasta and swirl each dollop in just a little bit. Otherwise, just stir in the basil or parsley and add 2 cups of the Mozzarella. You can also use the multi-cheese Italian blend instead.

Stir cheese in, taste and adjust seasonings as needed and stir again.

Top with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella.

Cover pot and let rest while cheese melts, about 5 minutes.

Garnish with additional fresh basil or parsley for color.

Scoop into a serving bowl and add a nice mixed garden salad and some hot garlic bread to round it out!

For more of my favorite Instant Pot (Electronic Pressure Cooker) recipes, check out the collection on my Pinterest page!



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Posted by DeepSouthDish.com on April 27, 2023

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