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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!
My kids LOVED this recipe, thanks so much for sharing! I will definitely be making this again.
This recipe is amazing! Are there any suggestions to take it to a friend that just had a baby? I’d like to give her something that she can just pop in the oven. Not sure how if that’s possible with this recipe. I think her family would love this.
Hi Lindsay! Glad to hear you love it! I would undercook the pasta a bit and add a little extra sauce because once the pasta has cooled, the pasta soaks up a lot of the sauce. Pour it into a throw away tinfoil 9×13 pan, refrigerate. Have her reheat on 350* for about 20-25 minutes or until the sauce is bubbly! Hope this helps!
Thank you for the help! How do you undercook noodles in the IP? Im just not sure about that part. Thanks again. I think she’ll love it.
I would just cook them for 5 minutes instead of 6. ??
Will do! Thanks so much!
I am planning to make this for my friend this weekend. Do i use all the same instructions if I’m doubling the recipe? So, 5 minutes to undercook the noodles & do the same oven time & heat for when she uses it?
Yes, that is what I’d do if I were trying to do the same thing!
Made this tonight. Didn’t have heavy cream, so used evaporated milk like suggested. It curdled. Will try this again and make sure that we have cream in the house.
Sorry to hear this, Barbara! There isn’t enough fat content in the evaporated milk to stabilize it under pressure. That is why it curdled. Hope this helps explain!
Can I make the suggestion for you to remove your comment from April 19, 2018 where you suggested to another person to use the evaporated milk? This comment is very close to the top, so lots of people will read that and make the same mistake. I read that comment and since I didn’t have the heavy cream, but did have the evaporated milk, I thought it would be ok to use. Just a suggestion! Thanks!
Hi Barbara- just went and edited that comment. My thinking when I asked that question was that if the commenter did have evaporated milk she could make my skinny Alfredo, which uses evaporated milk but it is stirred in after pressure cooking. ?
I just got my 1st Instapot for Christmas and I just made this as my first dish. I doubled the recipe and it is absolutely delicious, thank you so much for having such an easy to follow and amazing recipe!!
Thanks for commenting, Melissa! Glad you enjoyed it. ❤️
This is my 3rd recipe tried with my new instant pot. The 2nd was an epic failure so I was praying this would be better… thank god it was delicious! I only had 3/4 cup of heavy cream so I added in 1/4 cup of 2% milk with it and tasted great and no issues. I also didn’t have minced dried garlic so I used minced garlic from the jar – and just because some made comments about less flavor and also because I adore garlic – I doubled the amount of garlic written. The flavor was so good my twin 8 year old boys, who are always underwhelmed with what I make, said it was fantastic! Definitely will be adding this into my dinner rotation as it took me under 15 minutes from start to finish. I found no issue with the length of cooking and NPR as written so I agree it must be personal preference. Thank you thank you thank you! Of course now I have to search through all of your recipes and try more!
Thank you thank you, Roberta! ❤️ so glad to hear it was a major success!
I made this today and followed the recipe exactly. It was perfect. Thank ou for such an easy delicious meal.
Glad to hear you liked it!
Can I use water instead of the chicken broth?
Hi Ashely, it would work, the flavor might be lacking a bit though.
I just got an IP for Christmas from my mother-in-law so I’ve been scouring Pinterest trying to find some good things to try.. I made this tonight and it’s delicious!! ? ? my toddler was having a fit cuz apparently the noodle looked foreign ? haha. But more for me! Next time tho I will double it, this needs leftovers haha.. thanks so much!!
Oh, toddlers! Boy can I relate!! Next time double and use penne for the toddler. Same cook time. ?
Haha I actually did use penne since that was all the store I went to had but still same cook time and came out perfectly 🙂
I’m excited to try this! If adding pork sausage, would you recomend .5lb or 1lb given the recipie as stated?
I would probably say .5 lb, but I don’t like a ton of meat! If you and your family are big sausage fans you could definitely get away with 1 lb. I don’t think that would be to much at all!