10 Ridiculously-Delicious Pasta Dinners to Make in Your Instant Pot

If you have an Instant Pot, you should be making pasta in it. And if you don’t have an Instant pot, you should get one just to make pasta in (though you can make dozens of other things, of course). That’s not because the Instant Pot is any faster — stovetop pasta is already pretty quick, after all — but because it rewards you with some of the most silken, flavorful pasta dishes.

The typical stovetop method ends up rinsing away a lot of the starch that makes pasta taste so decadent. The high-pressure cooking of the Instant Pot helps to infuse the pasta with the sauce it’s cooking in — making it far, far more delicious. Plus, you only have one pot to clean when you’re done.

New to the Instant Pot? Here are helpful answers to your 100+ Instant Pot questions.

You can make all kinds of pasta dishes in your Instant Pot — from straightforward mac and cheese, to hearty spaghetti and meatballs, to elegant shrimp linguini. Here are 10 Instant Pot pasta recipes to make ASAP.

This classic family favorite is easy to recreate in your Instant Pot and it hits the table in a fraction of the time, which means it’s totally doable on a weeknight. The trick is to add the cheese after cooking, then cover and wait a few minutes for it to melt into the pasta.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot “Baked” Ziti

Instant Pot chicken Alfredo takes advantage of both the Instant Pot’s sauté function and its pressure cooking ability. It also calls for shortcutting the sauce with a favorite jarred version, though you can certainly use homemade sauce for if you want to take your Alfredo to the next level.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot Chicken Alfredo

Just five ingredients and 20 minutes stands between you and an irresistibly creamy bowl of mac and cheese. We’ve made this comforting pasta dish using everything from bags of shredded cheese-blends to blocks of sharp cheddar and had success every time. We recommend a mixture of sharp cheddar for flavor and Monterey Jack, which gives the sauce a creamier body, but feel free to experiment! It’s hard to go wrong when it comes to cheese.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese

This recipe is our absolute favorite spaghetti and meat sauce. Because the spaghetti cooks with the sauce, it’s flavored from the inside out and, thanks to all the starchy goodness, the sauce clings perfectly to the pasta. The secret to success is not stirring the ingredients once the spaghetti is added to the pot. That will help prevent the pasta from clumping together.

Get the recipe: How To Make Instant Pot Spaghetti

Layer a mix of your favorite frozen veggies and cherry tomatoes over any kind of short tube pasta, (remember not to stir), and in under 20 minutes you’ll be tucking into a wholesome and delicious pasta dinner.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot Pasta Primavera

This is a pasta-night favorite that burger-lovers can definitely get behind. The mac and cheese gets a pop of flavor from ketchup and mustard. When it comes to the cheese, take your pick of American, mild cheddar, or Colby.

Get the recipe: Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese

This is my favorite kind of weeknight dinner, and a great way to use a bag of frozen shrimp: It feels super fancy, but takes barely any time or effort to pull off.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot Lemon Butter Shrimp Linguine

If you like your chili with some spice, as I do, try tossing in some shredded pepper Jack cheese in addition to cheddar. It gives this two-for-one meal the the right amount of extra kick.

Get the recipe: Chili Mac and Cheese

The best thing about cooking meatballs right in your Instant Pot with the spaghetti is they won’t run the risk of drying out. Since they cook so quickly, you’re left with perfectly tender, ridiculously juicy meatballs that may even steal the spotlight away from the pasta.

Get the recipe: Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs

The secret to making this beefy noodle dish extra special? You deglaze your Instant Pot insert with red wine. Doing so ensures you’ll scrape up every bit of flavor from the beef and onions and amp up the flavor of the jarred marinara.

See more: Instant Pot Ground Beef and Pasta from Damn Delicious