You know those nights when you come home from a long day at work and you just want to dump a few things into a pot and push a button to make dinner? This suuuuuper easy Instant Pot penne with turkey sausage was made for those nights.
I know I’m not alone in my love for the Instant Pot and pressure cookers in general, and the Instant Pot is just kind of the “it” appliance right now. But, hey, it’s popular for a reason.
This pasta in particular is a good old fashioned one-pot meal that makes dinner prep so quick and easy, and you don’t even have to worry about doing a ton of dishes when you’re done. SCORE.
Here’s how you make it:
Add a little olive oil into your pot. With your Instant Pot on the saute setting, cook the diced onions, diced green peppers and chicken sausage until the sausage is no longer pink.
Pour the penne into the pot (on top of the sausage), then pour the water on top of that. Last, pour your jar of spaghetti sauce on top of the whole thing.
A side note here: Don’t stir everything together at this stage. I’ve heard that tomato-based sauces can have a tendency to burn to the bottom of the pot in an Instant Pot. This recipe has enough water added that it probably wouldn’t be a problem, but better safe than sorry. So I just add the spaghetti sauce on top and stir it all together after it’s cooked.
Once all your ingredients are layered in the Instant Pot, lock the lid on and switch the float valve to over to the sealed position. Set the Instant Pot on high pressure for five minutes. When the five minutes has completed, do a quick pressure release. (This just means you should switch the valve to release the steam as soon as cooking is complete.)
Remove the lid, give it a good stir to mix it all up… and that’s it!
Dinner is served. NOM.
A quick and easy pasta from the Instant Pot.
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 lb spicy Italian turkey sausage
- 1/2 onion (diced)
- 1/2 green pepper (diced)
- 1 lb penne
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 24 oz spaghetti sauce
- chopped basil (optional, for garnish)
- shredded parmesan cheese (optional, for garnish)
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Set the Instant Pot on saute setting and pour olive oil into the Instant Pot. Squeeze the turkey sausage out of its casing, add the sausage to the Instant Pot and break it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Add the diced onion and diced green pepper to the instant pot. Stir and cook until the sausage is no longer pink.
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Add the penne on top of the sausage mixture. Pour water into the pot, and pour the spaghetti sauce on top of the pasta. (Note: Do not mix! Sometimes pasta sauce can burn to the bottom of the Instant Pot, so it's best to just layer the ingredients and stir it after it's finished cooking.)
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Lock the lid on the Instant Pot, switch the valve to sealed position, and set the Instant Pot to cook on high pressure for five minutes.
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When the Instant Pot finishes the five minutes of high pressure cooking, immediately release the steam by switching the pressure valve to venting. Stir the pasta and sauce to mix it all together. Top with basil and parmesan when serving, if desired.
This was SO good and so easy! Totally amazed how perfectly the pasta was cooked. Keep the instant pot recipes coming!
I’m kind of addicted to the Instant Pot lately, so I’m sure there will be more to come.
Yes please!! This should be my dinner right now, I would be happily gobbling up more then a plate full. I seriously need to get an instant pot. I never thought of making a pasta sauce in the instant pot. I can see that it makes quite some sense.
I admit, I wasn’t sure if the Instant Pot hype was legit… and then I got one and definitely haven’t regretted it. They’re pretty handy!
Amazing how a eleven minute pasta gets cooked in five minutes in an instant pot. I need to get on board and buy me an instant pot. This sounds so delish.
My favorite perk of this recipe… only having to wash one pot when I’m done cooking. The Instant Pot totally plays into my lazy tendencies. haha!
YUM! This looks sooo yummy!
Thanks, Deanna!
I might have to get an instant pot! I feel like I’ve been seeing recipes everywhere!
That sounds magical to me! Ha ha. I need to get an instapot still. Dinners like this would be such a relief on nights like the ones you mentioned (which happens so often with kids the ages of mine. We’re always running around until dinner time.)
I’m trying but the pot won’t cook! What setting do we use to cook for 5 min? I did everything else
On my Instant Pot, I just press the “manual” button and then use the plus and minus buttons to adjust the time to five minutes. After that, it does take a few minutes to come up to pressure and start the actual cooking cycle. (Depending on the liquid content of what I’m making and temperature of the food before it’s cooked, that can take up to 10 minutes on my IP.) So you just might need to give it a few more minutes to come up to pressure and start cooking.