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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!
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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!
Made this and the whole family loved it. Quick easy and delicious.. i used half an half instead of cream and it still came out amazing.
Going to try it with gluten free pasta-wish me luck!
Is the red pasta sauce referring to marinara, spaghetti sauce, or basic tomato sauce? Thanks!
Marinara or spaghetti sauce work great!
I used freshly grated Romano cheese instead of Parmesan as that is what I had on hand. I also doubled the recipe. I used Ragu traditional as the red sauce. Truly the best version of the Olive Garden 5 cheese Ziti ever! Couple this with a iceberg salad with Olive Garden dressing and croutons and top it off with the other veggie fixings from your grocery store, and this will result in an amazing meal.
This is one of our go to meals! So easy and so delicious! I started omitting the mozzarella and it is just as good without. My favourite pasta sauce to use is the Classico Italian sausage, peppers and onions. So, so good!
Awesome! Add a little more cream and ragu but soooo delicious!
As if this dish didn’t have enough positive reviews I’m gonna leave another one. If you make this dish even once, your whole family will be hooked. You included since its so easy to make! Oh but one piece of advice, double it. Cause everyone is gonna want seconds (or thirds)
Does this freeze well?
You can- but it doesn’t warm up quite the same. It is best eaten fresh.
This is a family favorite and a quick go to that tastes amazing!! If you want to know a secret.. I once lied to my husband that I had dinner planned and it was cooking,,in reality I was deep into a Netflix series and couldn’t muster the strength to pause it. When I got that dreaded text ” headed home” I quickly ran to the fridge to see what I could throw together. To my amazement I had just about everything to make this fabulous dish,,I was shy on the full amount of cheese so I just cut back 1/4 cup of pasta sauce to help just incase it turned out liquidy . It turned out amazing and my husband even gave me a pat on the bum and said he appreciated me as I pretended to wipe sweat from my brow from the long night in the kitchen;) I would give this recipe an extra star if I could just for that!
I’m new to the IP world and don’t understand what “Manual” means. I don’t have that button. I am choosing “pressure cook” and set the timer for 6 minutes. Fingers crossed it works. I don’t have mozzarella cheese on hand so I will sub with white smoked cheddar as my kids are currently obsessed with it. Hoping this works well so I can make it more often. Looks and sounds delicious
Pressure cook was the correct button! Hope you loved it!
Update: my kids LoVED it and I made it twice in one week. Second time I doubled it and we ate it for 2 days. My boys have it a million out of 10. This recipe will definitely be a go to from now on. Thanks for posting it!