One-pot Penne in Tomato Cream sauce made in Instant Pot – A quick and easy meal, perfect for weeknights. A favorite for both kids and adults, and a great option for gatherings. It takes maximum 20 minutes from start to finish. Pair it with a soup or salad for a perfect dinner.
I have been using the pressure cooker for a long, long time. But before the Instant Pot, I never thought of cooking pasta in a pressure cooker.
However, now that I have tried Instant Pot Pasta, it is hard to return. Perfectly cooked pasta in half the time and fewer dishes to do…it is a win-win for sure!
This is one of the first dishes I tried when I was an instant pot newbie 🙂
Step-by-Step Easy Instant Pot Penne Recipe
In this vegetarian pasta recipe, I used penne pasta and a store-bought jar of marinara sauce. You can use any type of pasta, such as bowtie, ziti, etc.
Also, use any type of tomato-based pasta sauce. However, choose the one with no or very, very minimal cheese. As we are pressure-cooking the sauce and penne together in the pot, we don’t want the cheese in the sauce to get stuck at the bottom of the Instant Pot insert. You can also choose to make the sauce at home.
Start the Instant Pot in sauté mode and add the marinara sauce. Let it come to a boil. Then add in any veggies of your choice. I added green peas in the images below, but you can add others too, such as bell peppers or mushrooms. Stir in the penne. Now we are ready to pressure cook the penne.
Change the setting to manual mode for 4 minutes. For al dente, cook for 1 minute, less than half the time recommended on the box. Add one more minute for well-done pasta. For example, if the pasta box says 12 minutes, then I would pressure cook for 5 minutes. I prefer to cook al dente and then add a minute or so on sauté mode if needed.
When the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually. Then stir in the cream and cheese to get the rich, creamy flavor.
The penne in tomato cream sauce is ready. If it is not the exact consistency you like, change to sauté mode and cook for a couple of minutes. It came out perfectly for me, and I did not have to cook it any longer.
Pair this Creamy Penne with a soup or salad. Enjoy with a glass of wine 🙂
Check out more instant pot pasta recipes
Penne Pasta in Tomato Cream Sauce – Instant Pot
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
- 5 cloves Garlic, diced (not paste)
- 9 ounces Penne Pasta, (about 3-4 cups)
- 12 ounces Marinara Sauce, or similar tomato based sauce
- 1/2 cup Cream
- 1/2 cup Cheese, Romano or Parmesan or cheese of your choice
- 1 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Start the instant pot in sauté mode and heat oil in it. Add the garlic and cook until it is golden brown.
- Add the marinara sauce and let it come to a boil. This will take a couple of minutes. (See notes if you have had a Burn issue in your instant pot)
- Add a cup of water and then stir in the penne. Scrape if anything is stuck to the bottom of the pot. Most of the pasta should be covered in the sauce and water. If it is not, add some more water.
- Close the instant pot lid with vent in sealing position. Change the setting to manual or pressure cook mode at high pressure for 4 minutes. The time to cook is usually 1 minute less than half of the suggest time on the pasta box. This will result in al dente pasta.
- When the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure manually.
- Stir in the cream and cheese, so it is mixed well with the sauce. Add in lemon juice and salt to taste. Penne is ready to be served.
- Tip: Remove the steel insert from the instant pot, so the bottom does not continue cooking from the heat.
Notes
- This recipe was created in a 6qt Instant Pot DUO60 Multi-use Pressure Cooker.
- Important: In newer versions of Instant Pot, many readers are facing a Burn message. If you have ever seen a Burn in your instant pot, I recommend skipping step 2 and adding the marinara sauce just before pressure cooking. Just spread the sauce on top of the penne, do not stir it.
I made this for a italian themed potluck, came out very nice..thanks Meeta for sharing the recipe
Absolutely amazing! So amazing that I didn’t have enough for everyone to get the thirds that wanted! Next time I’ll double the recipe and maybe I’ll have some leftovers for lunch the next day. It was so easy and quick too. Perfect for busy weeknights. Thanks for the recipe! Definitely going into my rotation.
Hi Chrystal – So glad to hear you all enjoyed the Penne. Thank you for sharing back your review!
Tried it and absolutely loved it. My 6 year old daughter says its the best pasta recipe ever. Followed the instructions so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Came perfect . Thank you so much for this recipe.
Hi Sheetu – Glad to hear you and the little one enjoyed the pasta!
For your vegan readers – I added Miyoko’s cream cheese and non-dairy creamer to make it into a cream-based pasta. The cream cheese is tangy to start with, so no need to add lemon juice at the end.
However, I felt the pasta is delicious with just marinara sauce and vegetables.
I love making pasta / noodles in the instant pot since there’s no need to drain it when it’s cooked (I HATE wasting water.) Also, the taste is so much better when it cooks in sauce rather than water. Thanks for another great recipe!
Hey JS – Thank you so much for sharing the changes you made to make this recipe vegan. It will be very helpful for other readers 🙂
I made this pasta for the first time in an instant pot. I pressure cooked for 6 mins instead of 4 as my pasta was whole grain rotini (was out of penne). I have IP ultra and I was worried it would burn. It did not burn, but some of my sauce had stuck to the bottom. So may be I ll try with 5 mins next time for rotini kind of pasta. I think 4 for penne would be perfect though.
I did not have peas or cream so I replaced with whatever I had in the fridge – southwest style protein blend and mascarpone 😛 .The pasta turned out to be uber delicious. Even my husband who doesn’t like red sauce pastas had two servings of it. I am never going back to stove top pasta again. Thank you so much for this recipe. It is quick and delicious and doesn’t ask for too many ingredients, which makes it perfect for a lazy day meal.
Hey Deepika – Glad to hear you enjoyed the pasta. Thank you for sharing the changes you made. We love this pasta for the ease and quick dinner on lazy days too!
It turned out so good. I changed recipe a little by adding my own pasta sauce and homemade veggie broth. I used wheat pasta so I had to cook it for 6 minutes with natural release. I originally cooked it for 5 mins but then I had to add 2 more minutes for better cooking. I didn’t add peas(my son hates peas) and cream but still it was so gooood. Thank you so much. It is so easy!
Hey Pankti – Glad you enjoyed the pasta. Thank you for sharing the changes you made!
I recently came across your site and just bought instant pot. Perfect timing. just made this pasta and it’s come out delicious. Will be trying more of your recipes. Perfect blog for time constraint working moms like me.
Hey Anu – Welcome to the instant potters club! Glad to hear you all enjoyed the penne. Would love to hear if you try any other recipes!
Tried this recipe today for dinner. Came out just awesome !! My husband loved it and he said it reminded him of his favorite pasta place in Delhi that he always misses here in US. The best part is that it’s one pot preparation ! Thanks a lot for sharing this and helping all of us busy working women who are trying to feed the family well 🙂
Hey Heena – So glad to hear you and your husband enjoyed the pasta. It is great to hear that the one-pot recipes are helping you. Thank you so much for sharing back your review!
I have cooked many recipes in the IP since aquiring it last year, however I never cooked a one pot pasta dish! Your recipe was very helpful in the notes to prevent the dreaded “Burn” code from showing up, because not all IP pasta recipes address this common issue, especially when cooking thicker tomato based sauces.
I tweaked your recipe to have Italian sausage, rigatoni pasta, garlic, onion, mushrooms, and grated zucchin and crushed tomatoes. Then I layered dry pasta over meat//veggie /water +( better than boulion chicken stalk paste). Then the crushed tomatoes over the pasta. Covered with lid and set pressure cook button. I did not mix the layers before cooking and then mixed everything togethe after quick release. There was no sticking of pasta either. The finished product turned fantastic with the cheese and cream added at the end. I think next time I would cook for 5 mins instead of 4 and add 2 cups broth for the 1lb of pasta, other than that it was not watery but a bit too aldente for my personal taste. Will also add that my 6 yr old gobbled up her dinner with no complaints! ??
Hey Arricka – Thank you so much for sharing back the changes you made in detail. This is very helpful to readers and new users of instant pot. Glad that you all enjoyed it 🙂
I made a different version of pasta. I made white sauce veggie pasta and turned out delicious. I am new to using IP and followed your instructions. It was the first time I made pasta in IP!! Thank you for the information. Details: 1.5 cups milk and 1 cup water for 2 cups of pasta. 1 tbsp of all purpose flour. 4 minutes of IP and it was ready!!
Hey Nikita – Glad that the guidelines helped to make white sauce pasta in your new instant pot. Thank you for sharing the details of how you made the pasta.
Can you substitute milk for heavy cream?
Hey Shef – I have not tried substituting milk for cream in pasta. You can try with adding a little and see if you like it.
I must have the newer model of IP because I’ve been getting a BURN notice for many of my dishes, so thank you for shedding light on how to avoid this in your notes section. I used Trader Joe’s Creamy Tomato Basil sauce and didn’t need to finish off the dish with any cream. This dish was super fast and delicious. And I love the one pot clean up 🙂
Hey Rupal – Glad that the notes helped. I heard from many about the Burn issue, so happy that you were able to avoid it. Thank you for sharing your review!
For those who have newer instant pot and have burn issue, cook with same method but only difference is cook for half the time mentioned on pasta box. Make sure your water level is just a little bit more that it covers pasta. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Josh. It will certainly help other readers 🙂
Do you have any tips, my pasta / dry veg always get burned at the bottom. in four min pasta still hard. What I am doing wrong. I try few times. Water is enough too. But still, get burned. Any advise.
Hey Poonam – Sorry to hear you have been having trouble with making pasta in the instant pot. I believe the newer versions of instant pot are more sensitive. One suggestion is to not mix the sauce. So the steps would be – Add the oil, garlic. Then add the veggies, dry pasta and water. Mix it well so paste is coated with water. Add the sauce on top, but don’t mix it. Start the instant pot and pressure cook. Sometimes the tomato scorches on the bottom. Do let me know if this helps.
Do you leave the garlic cloves whole or minced?
I dice the garlic cloves. Thanks for the question, I will update on the recipe when I am close to my laptop.
Creamy and delicious! Not too heavy and easy to make. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it ❤️
Tried this as my first Instapot recipe. Tasted great, once we finally got it cooked. But out Intsapot kept saying burn 🙁 We followed all instructions as listed. Any tips to prevent this next time?
Hello Jessica – Oh..I am sorry to hear 🙁 What size instant pot are you using? I ask because I have heard people having issues at times when using recipes with 8qt. One suggestion I have is to layer the food. After adding the garlic in step 1, add water first, then penne and mix with water. Then add the tomato based sauce spreading evenly on top of the penne. Do not stir much. Sometimes having the sauce on the top helps in case it is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
I use the IP so I can start and leave…. what if I am unable to quick release? Can I set it to cook for a lesser amount of time?
Thanks
Hey Sonia…totally agree that set and leave is one of the main reasons for using the instant pot. This works great with lentils, soups, rice, etc. However as pasta can get mushy, I would not recommend that for it. I suggest quick release for pasta. The reason why I use ip for pasta is less utensils dirty, and all done in one pot. I hope that helps!
Just made this ! Soooo yummy! Kids finished all of it!! Thankyou ????
Thanks for sharing. My daughter loves this one as well, and frequently asks to give it for lunch at school.
This became our dinner too 🙂
What type of cream do you use? This looks delicious!
I use heavy whipping cream which is available at most grocery stores.
thanks. and when you do quick release is it straight away or after 10 mins?
Release the pressure as soon as the instant pot beeps, else the pasta will get overcooked. Hope you like it ????