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Dump and Start Instant Pot Creamy Ziti is saucy, cheesy and delicious. 20 minutes is all you need to make this creamy red sauce pasta dish!
Don’t have an Instant Pot yet? StoveTop Creamy Ziti Recipe is here!! Check it out!
Dump and Start Instant Pot Creamy Ziti is a favorite at my house! I’ll be honest, it totally reminds me of Olive Garden’s Five Cheese Ziti dish. AKA the only thing I ever get while visiting Olive Garden.
Also, every single person in my family enjoys this for dinner. That right there is a miracle, people. If you have kids, were a kid a some point or haven’t been living under a rock you’ll know that is nearly impossible.
I love how this pasta dish pairs nicely with all sorts of sides to make it a meal, you could do a garden salad, garlic bread or even a crisp Fruit and Vegetable Salad. Whatever you serve it up with, your family will love it!
How to Make Creamy Ziti
‘Dump and Start’ are a funny combination of words to be on my favorite word list.. but it’s there alright. This dish is so easy! Dump and Start easy. If you like dump and start recipes as much as I do, check out Top 25 Instant Pot Dump and Start Recipes.
Broth, cream, garlic, s&p and pasta go into the Instant Pot. Make sure that the pasta is covered with liquid.
Pressure cook for 6 minutes, NPR for 6 minutes and then QR the rest of the pressure. The sauce will be very liquidy, totally normal.
Turn the Instant Pot onto sauté, then in goes some red pasta sauce.
Slowly add in the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. This will thicken the sauce nicely for you. Once the sauce has thickened, turn the Instant Pot off and serve immediately.
See, I told you it was easy.
Don’t have an Instant Pot yet? HAVE NO FEAR!! One Pot Creamy Ziti Recipe is here!! Check it out!
Looking for a lighter version?? Try my SKINNY CREAMY ZITI!
Try out these other Recipes!
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Dump and Start Instant Pot Creamy Ziti
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp minced garlic, dried
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 oz dry ziti pasta
- 1 cup red pasta sauce
- 1 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Add the broth, cream, garlic, salt, pepper and noodles to the instant pot in that order. DO NOT STIR, but make sure all noodles are covered. If you need to move some noodles around, thats okay.
- Set your Instant Pot to Manual for 6 minutes. Let it naturally release its pressure for an additional 6 minutes then quick release.
- Add the red pasta sauce to the Instant Pot and give it a stir.
- SLOWLY add in the cheese while stirring. The cheese will melt and thicken the sauce. The sauce will also thicken as it cools.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Dump and Start Instant Pot Creamy Ziti
Dump and Start Instant Pot Creamy Ziti is saucy, cheesy and delicious. 20 minutes is all you need to make this creamy red sauce pasta dish!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp minced garlic dried
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 oz dry ziti pasta
- 1 cup red pasta sauce
- 1 cup parmesan cheese shredded
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Add the broth, cream, garlic, salt, pepper and noodles to the instant pot in that order. DO NOT STIR, but make sure all noodles are covered. If you need to move some noodles around, thats okay.
- Set your Instant Pot to Manual for 6 minutes. Let it naturally release its pressure for an additional 6 minutes then quick release.
- Add the red pasta sauce to the Instant Pot and give it a stir.
- SLOWLY add in the cheese while stirring. The cheese will melt and thicken the sauce. The sauce will also thicken as it cools.
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
This is a very saucy dish- If you like yours with less sauce, just cut back on the red pasta sauce at the end.
Serve alongside some Oven Roasted Broccoli!
This was delicious! I used fresh garlic, reduced the chicken stock, and substituted vodka to turn the dish into a vodka sauce pasta dish. It was amazing! This is a great base recipe you can use to build other pasta dishes. Thank you for a winning recipe!
Love those substitutions! Thanks for commenting!
I made this as written except doubled the recipe because we love leftovers to take to work! It was so delicious! It was my first dish ever made with my Instant Pot after Christmas. I’m going to make it again tonight, and I’m already salivating.
I’m thinking about adding either frozen meatballs or frozen langostino tails too. We’ll see!
How did the meatballs turn out? So glad you love this recipe!
Nothing better than a cheesy pasta like this one. I need to get an instant pot.
If I add raw chicken (tenders cut in chunks), would I add with all other ingredients? Or cook first then start recipe?
Hi Ian! You can actually just toss frozen chicken tenders on top of the pasta and it will all cook at the same time.
I made this tonight. I was so excited bc it looked so good. I didn’t have heavy cream so I used 1/2 & 1/2. It curdled 🙁 I went ahead with the recipe anyway, it was ok.
After reading some of the comments, maybe I’ll try it again with heavy cream
Hi Ivy- sorry to hear this! Half and half doesn’t have enough fat in it to stabilize it under pressure and it will curdle. You won’t have that problem with heavy cream. Give it another go!
What kind of red pasta sauce do you recommend using with this recipe?
I usually use Hunt’s 4 cheese pasta sauce. Any spaghetti sauce will work though!
If you double this recipe, do you have to cook it longer than the 6 minutes under pressure?
Nope, cook time will stay the same. 🙂
What is red paste sauce?
Just like Spaghetti Sauce. 😊
So, I have made this twice already, and my family loves it! I hope you don’t mind that I also veganized it, lol…I used vegetable broth, and for the heavy cream, I used 3/4 cup of almond milk with 1/4 cup of melted Earth Balance. I omitted the parmesan cheese, and used vegan mozzarella shreds. It worked! Came so good. Still followed your recipe exactly, and it all came together. So for anyone who can’t have dairy but still would like delicious recipes like this, it can be done! Thank you for sharing this! It’s an awesome comfort food in our home. Love it! Adding to the my collection of recipes. 😉
I LOVE that you veganized it! In my opinion, my recipes are great base recipes that are meant to be tweaked to your family’s liking. ❤️ so glad you enjoy this one!
This sounds amazing! Is it possible to cook this with chicken as well? If so do you recommend adding the chicken and cooking it all together? Would I still cook it for the 6 minutes?
Yes! You can just toss frozen chicken tenders on top of the pasta. Cooks for the same time. 🙂
IP newbie here. What do you think about adding frozen meatballs instead of chicken tenders? Small/cocktail size. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
That would work perfectly! Hope you enjoy!
I add shredded chicken just before adding the parm cheese at the end. I have tried to do it after the parm cheese but we like how the cheese kind of grabs hold of the chicken and gives it an sharper parm flavor than if we add it after the parm is in and melted. It tastes like an Olive Garden dish! We have tried it with meatballs, too, but it tasted better with chicken.
This is a family fav!
Hi Kathy- Thanks for your insightful comment! I love this with chicken, also. Great tip about adding it the chicken before adding the parm!!