Can You Successfully Cook Pasta In An Instant Pot?

When the Instant Pot hit the market, the brilliant time-saving device quickly accumulated legions of fans. Anything that makes it possible to have a hearty, home-cooked meal even when you're short on time is a win, and it wasn't long before formerly time-intensive dinners like brisket pot roast got the Instant Pot treatment. Many Instant Pot meals are the set-it-and-forget-it type, but what about something that's a little more hands-on, like pasta?

Getting pasta to a just-right texture means removing it from the heat before it's too well done and tasting it along the way. You've probably heard the term al dente and what it actually means: To the tooth. That suggests it's soft but not mushy and still has a firm texture that will hold up to being covered in sauce. It's easy to misjudge things and remove your pasta from the boil too early or too late, but here's some good news for anyone struggling with pasta: It turns out that it is entirely possible to cook it perfectly in your Instant Pot.

Not only is it possible to make plain pasta, but you can whip up an entire pasta dinner in just this one pot. There are also several good reasons to do exactly that. Keep just a few guidelines in mind, and you may never make pasta on the stove again.

First, let's say you're just making plain pasta. Maybe it's destined for your favorite zesty Italian pasta salad, or perhaps you're trying something new, like an Asian pasta salad with seaweed. Either way, making it is pretty straightforward — as long as you keep a few guidelines in mind.

A general rule to start is to weigh your pasta and then double that to determine how much water you should add. Making 12 ounces of pasta for a Mediterranean pasta salad? You'll need 24 ounces of water. The water should be just enough to cover the pasta, but when it comes to time, that's a little more complicated.

If you're using your high-pressure cook setting, it will only take 1-5 minutes to cook your pasta, which might take some experimentation. You'll need to consider two main things: How full your Instant Pot is and what kind of pasta you're using. The more pasta you make, the faster it will cook, as there's less empty space that needs to be pressurized before the cooking process starts. The heavier the pasta, the longer it's going to take. With those rules in mind, for example, it would take around 1 minute for a full batch of angel hair pasta but closer to 5 minutes for a smaller amount of penne pasta.

If you've got your eye on a spaghetti dinner, you can certainly throw all your spaghetti ingredients into the Instant Pot for a hearty meal that takes less than 10 minutes from start to finish. It even works with a vegetable lasagna! Just add your sauce and ingredients and let the pot do the work.

In addition to being quick and easy, using the Instant Pot for pasta has some other benefits. You've probably heard that there are all kinds of uses for leftover pasta water, including using it to bind pesto to noodles and thicken sauce. With the Instant Pot method, this magic happens without any added steps. Properly proportion things, and you'll find that almost all of the liquid is absorbed, and the starches that make pasta water such a great thickener are still incorporated in the pasta. Use that same pot to mix in your bechamel or cheese sauce, and you'll end up with an extra-thick, extra-creamy sauce. 

This comes with a bit of a caveat, though. It's worth keeping in mind that homemade and fresh pasta should only be added to an Instant Pot when you're already cooking sauce and nearing the end of the process. The same applies to gnocchi. Long pasta varieties — like spaghetti and angel hair — should be broken up first, but they still might get sticky. For best results, choose a hearty, heavy pasta like penne, rigatoni, farfalle, or macaroni.