One Pot Instant Pot Beef Ragu Pasta

Submitted by CancerWife on Wed, 03/25/2015 - 19:19

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating with Cancerwife I like making pasta, but waiting for the pasta to cook on the stove is quite time consuming. I wondered if it would ever be possible to make a one pot pasta dish, from dried pasta and raw meat, without having to look after boiling pots on the stove?

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating at Home with Cancerwife

Wouldn't it be a dream if I could put all the ingredients into the pot, press a few buttons and leave it to cook by itself? I tried making a one-pot pasta dish in the rice cooker, but the pasta became very soggy. But it seemed like this may be possible after I got the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker!

After researching pressure cooker pasta recipes from hippressurecooking.com and pressurecookingtoday.com, I decided to give it a try with my ideal no hassle ingredients - one bag of dried pasta, one jar of pasta sauce and one pack of ground beef! On my first try it worked, with the pasta being al dente!

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating at Home with Cancerwife

The trick to cooking al dente pasta in the electric pressure cooker is clearly explained here by hippressurecooking.com. You look at the package of the pasta for the total time needed to normally cook the pasta. The pressure cooker will require half that amount of time!

This bag of pasta I used cooks normally in 11 minutes, so I halved it and rounded it up to 6 minutes pressure cooker time. I may add on another minute or two next time, as I prefer softer-than-aldente pasta after my jaw surgery. One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating at Home with CancerWife

The Instant Pot has a "Saute" feature which allows you to stir fry ingredients in the pot (without the lid on) before using the pressure cooker function. I sauted the ground beef so that it would be in pieces before cooking with the pasta (1, 2).

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating at Home with CancerWife

For the pressure cooker to work properly, it's important to put enough liquid so that the pot will be able to build up pressure. I found that after putting in the pasta sauce (3), I only needed to fill up the empty pasta sauce jar full of water to completely cover the dried pasta (4). I didn't even need to use a measuring cup - one less thing to wash!

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta, Healthy Eating at Home with CancerWife

Before making this recipe, I highly recommend reading these tips that help with ensuring a good pressure seal and opening the lid safely.

Completed pasta dish in 30 minutes from start to finish! Give it a good stir!

Enjoy this super no-hassle recipe!

One Pot Pressure Cooker Beef Ragu Pasta

4-6 servings.

1 lb ground beef (16oz, 452g)

1 lb dried pasta (17.6oz, 500g)

1 jar pasta sauce (25.5oz, 723g)

Instant Pot (from Amazon)

Optional: salt to taste, toppings of olive oil and/or cheese

1) Press Instant pot setting "Saute". With the lid open, cook ground beef until it is crumbled and partially cooked. I added a pinch of salt to the beef as my pasta sauce is not salty enough to flavor all the pasta.

2) Add the entire package of dried pasta, then the whole jar of pasta sauce.

3) Fill the emptied pasta sauce jar with one jar full of water. Pour into pot. Stir all the ingredients together so that the beef is well mixed with the pasta. Make sure all the pasta is covered with liquid. If there is not enough liquid to cover the pasta, add enough water accordingly.

4) Stop the saute function by pressing the "Keep warm/ Cancel" button. Wipe the rim of the inner pot well (**any liquid or sauce on the rim of the inner pot will prevent the lid from sealing properly)

5) Lock on the lid. Make sure the steam release handle is on "Sealing". Press "Manual", then adjust the time to half of the time on the package of pasta with the -/+ buttons. For example, my package of pasta normally takes 11 minutes to cook, so half of that time (rounded up), is 6 minutes. I set my pressure cooking time to 6 minutes for this particular pasta.

5) When the cooking time is up, press the "Keep warm/cancel" button as soon as possible to stop the warming function. I like to put a kitchen towel over the vent before using a long kitchen utensil to flip the handle, in case any liquid spews out. Immediately quick release the steam by flipping the steam release handle to "Venting".

6) After the pressure float valve drops down, indicating the pressure in the pot has gone down to normal, twist open the lid. Be careful of any steam.

7) Give the pasta a good stir to mix the sauce and the pasta together.

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