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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!
Do you think the noodles would cook if I did this recipe using a regular pot with a lid. I don’t have a pressure cooker, but would love to try this recipe. 🙂
Hi Kim!! They probably would cook! I haven’t ever tried it but I assume you could simmer the broth and cream with the pasta and then when the pasta is cooked, add in the pasta sauce and cheese. Does that make sense? If you try it out, let me know how it goes! I’ll put this on my list to test out as well. ?
I want to try this with whole wheat ziti. The “regular” cooking time for the pasta is eleven minutes. Is that about the same as your ziti?
Yes, that is about the same. I think you would be okay keeping the cook time the same. ? let me know how it turns out with the whole wheat pasta!
I only have half and half cream, do you think it would work in place of the heavy cream? Or would evaporated milk be a better sub?
I wouldn’t recommend using half and half under pressure because it may curdle. Others have reported success using it under pressure, but I haven’t tested it to tell you that it would 100% work. If you would rather use the evaporated milk, I would follow the instructions and measurements for the Skinny Alfredo and then add up to 1 cup of red pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese at the end. Hope this helps, Sarah!
It does, thank you!!
You are welcome! ?
What is meant by minced garlic dried please?
Dried minced garlic can be found at your local grocery store down the spices isle. It will be by the garlic powder. You could substitute fresh garlic if you’d prefer. 4 fresh cloves is equal to 1 tsp of dried minced garlic. Hope this helps!
Oops, I missed the ‘dried’ part and used the wet kind. Recipe came out fine.
How much is a serving size? Thanks!
This will feed 4-6 people depending on how much everyone wants to eat. If this is the only item being served it should feed 4 people. If there will be a salad, breadsticks etc there should be plenty for 6. I hope that helps!
Do you think I could do this with spaghetti noodles instead?
Hi Meagan, You could make this with spaghetti noodles, I would probably cut the cook time down to 4 minutes though. The Ziti pasta is pretty thick and holds up to the rich sauce very well. If you have linguine noodles, those would probably work a bit better than spaghetti, but if spaghetti is all you have, they would definitely work in a pinch. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Is it possible to do this in a crockpot?i have a small one that heats up really well. I figure it’ll take longer, but really wanna give this a try!
I actually have converted this to a 30 minute one pot meal that cooks on the stovetop! Here is the link! https://cookingwithkarli.com/one-pot-creamy-ziti-pasta/
Made this last night for the husband and I and it was SO GOOD! Thank you, this is definitely going on rotation!
So glad you both loved it, April! Thanks for taking the time to comment. ☺️
I just tried this recipe. After the noodles are cooked in the pot, is there supposed to be cream and broth still at the bottom?
There will be cream and broth in the bottom, the pasta will soak up a good amount of the liquid you put in but there still will be some in the pot. The cheese you add will thicken the sauce. Hope this makes sense!!
I tried this recipe for dinner tonight and it was a hit. I sautéed ground beef with 1/2 cup of onion first. I then continued with the directions, adding more chicken broth to cover the noodles. After it was done, I tasted it and it needed something else. I added 1 tsp Italian seasoning and a little more garlic and it was great. The noodles were pretty soft (I like them more el dente)…wondering what would happen with a slow quick release immediately after the 6 min cook time is up…too much splattering???
Those sounds like great additions! It would sputter quite a bit if you quick released it right after the initial 6 minutes. I’d maybe try 5 min HP 5 minutes NPR next time and see if that comes out more to your liking. ?
Eeeek, my cheese got all clumpy and stringy. Any idea what I did wrong? I put it in slowly and stirred.
Hmmm. Maybe the sauce wasn’t quite hot enough. The pasta sauce cools things down a bit. If you turn it onto Saute and heat the sauce up the cheese should melt in. Did you use pre-shredded cheese?