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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!
I made this for dinner as my first instant pot meal, it was AMAZING! Creamy rich saucy and just the right portion for 4. An absolute must make! Thank you Karli!!
Jennifer, I am so happy you loved it!! Welcome to the Instant Pot! ❤️
Could I sub for gluten free pasta??
Hi Mallory! I haven’t ever cooked with gluten free pasta, but I do know that it is much more fragile and cooks quite a bit faster than regular pasta.
I’d take a look at the cook time on the gluten free pasta packaging and cut that time in half.
So if the package were to recommend cooking for 6 minutes, you’d want to pressure cook for 3, NPR 3.
With cutting the NPR time down, I do worry slightly about liquid spewing when releasing the pressure manually after the NPR. So just be ready with the end of a long spoon to close the vent if needed, wait 30 seconds or so and then try again. Repeating as needed.
Hope this helps!!
Awesome blog
Thanks, Jack!
One of my kids is allergic to Parmesan.,,do you think we could omit it and just use the mozzarella? The rest of us would probably sprinkle some after it’s cooked.
Yes! That would be just fine. You may need to add in a little extra cheese to make it thicken up. ?
I made this today for my very first IP meal. I doubled the recipe and made the following substitutions: vegetable broth, Rigatoni pasta, and garlic in water. Tasted great!
So glad it tasted great!! Thanks for taking the time to comment. ❤️
What would the best way be to add mushrooms? I think they’d be great.
I would add them at the end with the side and cheese. ?
This recipe was so easy and delicious. My husband,who hates literally everything I make, loved this and went for seconds.❤️
Yay!! This made my day! Thanks for commenting, Alisha!
I did the skinny version using your Alfredo recipe and it was amazing! My 2 year old, who I’m pretty sure hasn’t eaten in 2 days (so stubborn) devoured a huge bowl full and said “so yummy in my tummy!” It was great!! And one of my first 100% instapot successes!! We grilled some chicken on the bbq and it went perfectly together!
This makes me so happy! And I can definitely relate to stubborn eaters! I have myself a couple of those. ? so glad you loved it!
DELICIOUS!!! I made this last night and everyone loved it. The only problem was there wasn’t enough! There were 4 of us and I should have doubled it for sure. Very easy and delicious. I didn’t have dried minced garlic so I just used garlic powder.
I am so glad you loved it!! Thanks for taking the time to comment, Bridget! Xoxo
can I use 18% table cream for this recipes
thank you
Hi Anna!! 18% table cream doesn’t have enough fat to stabilize it under pressure and it could curdle. If you want to use The 18% table cream instead of heavy cream, follow this recipe for Skinny Alfredo, substitute ziti for the linguine and then add in the red pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese at the end with the table cream. Let me know if you have any questions!! https://cookingwithkarli.com/instant-pot-skinny-alfredo/