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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!
Took this recipe, and messed around with it a bit. Cooked ground turkey on sauté in instant pot. Added the seasoning. Then added beef broth, ziti, and spaghetti sauce. Cooked for your time, then added milk, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. It turned out delicious!! Very creamy and perfectly cooked pasta. Thank you for the recipe!
Yum! Sounds like great additions to the recipe!
Could I add cut up chicken in this for the same cooking time or should it be cooked chicken when I add it?
You can put frozen chicken tenders on top and keep the same cook time.
I like Lots of noodles, if i add more than 8 ounces of pasta, do I need to add additional sauce too?
Yes, the ratio of pasta to liquid has been tested so all of the pasta cooks through. If you add extra pasta, extra liquid will need to be added.
Is manual pressure high or low on the pressure cook setting?
Yes, if you have a newer Instant Pot you’ll press the ‘pressure cook’ button.
This is delicious and easy. Only problem was the cream curdled as a result of being cooked with everything else. Tonight, I will add the cream at the end once everything else is done cooking and solve that problem. 🙂
Hi Emily- Did you use full fat, heavy whipping cream? That will not curdle because of the high fat content. If using anything less (like half n half or something similar) it will curdle because the fat content isn’t high enough to stabilize it under pressure. Hopefully this helps a bit!
Hi, I did not use full fat and I noticed that the recipe recommends it but not until I had made and commented. I don’t mind added lighter cream afterwards as it still tastes delicious.
Such a simple recipe but so rich in flavor! My husband and I loved it! Every recipe on this site has been a success! This is definitely a keeper!
I am so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! Made my whole day. 🙂
I will always follow and support your blog
I tried your dump and start Ziti recipe this evening w/ iPad by my side, Instant Pot on the ready, and it came out awesome. I did STIR everything before adding pasta by mistake, noticed that direction after I did it. D’oh!! Maybe try copying that no stir direction earlier on as foreshadowing for us eager stirrers haha. Now I’m wondering what happens if I DONT stir it hmm.. more or less thick, flavor? Less arm use, less tricep tone? My substitutes due to what was on-hand were- minced garlic fresh not dry, and Italian blend shredded cheese. I’ve got chicken thighs in the oven to go with for dinner. In hindsight, I should have bought x2 heavy cream to do a double batch to match the 16oz box of pasta. Now I know! What is the tiny green garnish you used in the final photo? Is it green onion or parsley or coriander? Just curious what you used! Thanks, great recipe, love your sense of humor, I’m a new fan. J
Hi Jessica- You just don’t want to stir after adding that pasta. If you stir with the pasta in, sometimes the burn notice can happen because all of the pasta sinks down to the bottom and sticks there. I ma glad that you liked the recipe!! And as for that final garnish.. If I remember correctly, I didn’t have parsley on hand and I had a baby taking a nap so I used the tops of celery for the look of sliced parsley instead. 😂 I’m all about honesty over here. HA!
This looks really good! Question, could we use half and half if we add it at the end?
You can use this method and use half and half instead of the evaporated milk. 👍🏻 https://cookingwithkarli.com/instant-pot-skinny-creamy-ziti/
I ended up being distracted by a neighbour while making this, so I accidentally added the red pasta sauce at the beginning and I stirred it all up. Still worked perfectly, phew! Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly.
Everyone in my family enjoyed it, although as the recipe mentions, it was very saucy. I think next time I’ll experiment with adding a few canned white beans and some chopped spinach or kale; they shouldn’t absorb moisture so the sauce/pasta ratio will be fine, while adding some bulk to the recipe to use up all the sauce.
Thanks for this great recipe, Karli!
Yum! Those sound like great addition. 🙂
This was an instant favorite! So easy and delicious. Per the other reviews, I did add more of the liquid ingredients, enough to completely cover the pasta prior to cooking, and cut back the cheese to 1/2 cup for each. The kids loved it too
I am so glad you enjoy this recipe so much!!
I love this! Do you think I could meal prep and freeze?
Someone else just said that they do this and it works great! They put it in the fridge 24 hours before wanting to eat so it thaws and then they heat in the microwave.