Learn how to make super easy Instant Pot creamy sausage pasta using only 5 ingredients. Featuring Italian sausage, your favorite tomato sauce, leafy greens, and cream, this pasta dish comes together in about 20-25 minutes from start to finish. Enjoy as a quick midweek dinner, when you travel with your Instant Pot and add it to a budget-friendly menu.
If you’re looking for quick and easy Instant Pot dinner recipes, this creamy Italian sausage pasta is a total winner. Learn how to make this dish with just 5 main ingredients for a speedy, budget-friendly meal you can serve up to your family or friends.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS CREAMY SAUSAGE PASTA
- This Italian sausage pasta is super easy and quick to make with just a handful of ingredients.
- It’s a great dish for when you’re travelling with your Instant Pot and want to make a delicious dinner without too many ingredients.
- A comforting and satiating dish that your family or a group of friends will love.
- Using just 5 ingredients makes this dinner recipe super affordable. You can use it as a template recipe and swap out sausage for mushrooms or chickpeas for a vegetarian version.
5 INGREDIENTS TO MAKE INSTANT POT CREAMY PASTA
This pastas dish gets a lot of its flavor from the key ingredients and can vary depending on what sauce or what sausage you use. Here is what you need:
- Pasta – medium-sized dry pasta like penne, fusili, rotini or ziti will all work well here.
- Sausage – you can buy ground Italian sausage meat (mild to spicy) or you can get pre-made sausages and remove the mince from the casings. You could use plain ground meat here BUT using pre-made sausage gives you all the flavor and seasoning without having to do the work yourself or get extra ingredients like garlic, onion or herbs. You can use pork, beef or chicken sausage here.
- Tomato sauce – this one is totally up to you! If all you have is plain, unflavored tomato sauce or passata, you will need to add extra seasoning to the pot. We suggest picking up your favourite jar of marinara sauce; we used tomato and basil.
- Cream – you can use heavy/thick cream, half and half, sour cream or light cream here. Cream cheese could also be used!
- Leafy greens – baby spinach or arugula work great here as they need very little cooking and can be wilted into the pasta right at the end.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT CREAMY SAUSAGE PASTA
You will find the full recipe, ingredients and nutrition info just below. Here are some step-by-step pictures to guide you along.
Step 1. Add pasta, water and salt to the pot and stir.
Step 2. Break the sausage into bite-sized pieces and scatter on top of pasta. Pour the tomato sauce over the top and spread gently with a spatula (don’t stir, it will sink through during cooking).
Step 3. Cook on High pressure for 5 minutes, with 5 minutes natural release followed by quick release.
Step 4.Open the lid and add the spinach, stir into hot pasta.
Step 4. Stir in the cream. If the cream is cold out of the fridge, press the Keep Warm button or Saute to warm up the pasta as it might cool down.
Serve as is or with some shaved Parmesan or other cheese if you have some on hand. Sprinkle with a pinch of pepper.
MORE INSTANT POT PASTA RECIPES
- Creamy Instant Pot Mushroom & Chickpea Pasta
- Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken Pasta (Step-By-Step)
- Easy Creamy Pesto Pasta (Instant Pot & Stovetop)
- Instant Pot Chicken, Ham & Vegetable Pasta
Instant Pot Creamy Sausage Pasta (5-Ingredients Only!)
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 4-5 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Italian-American
Description
Learn how to make quick and easy Instant Pot creamy Italian sausage pasta. This 5-ingredient recipe is perfect for speedy dinners, when on the budget, while travelling with your Instant Pot or making a last-minute meal for friends.
Ingredients
10 oz / 300 g pasta
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups water
8–9 oz / 250 g Italian sausage broken into bite-size pieces
14–15 oz / 400 g favorite tomato sauce from a jar
1.5–2 cups leafy greens (e.g. baby spinach, arugula)
1/3 cup cream (half/half or thick cream)
A pinch of pepper to finish
Instructions
- Prep. Break the ground sausage into bite-size pieces. You can also make mini meatballs. If using sausage links, cut into small pieces.
- Add ingredients. Add the pasta, salt and water to the pot. The water should barely cover the pasta. Give it a quick stir. Then top the pasta with Italian sausage pieces followed by the tomato pasta sauce. Spread the sauce gently over the top but don’t stir. This will prevent any possible BURN errors from tomato sauce burning.
- Set & cook. Secure and lock the lid; make sure the pressure handle is pointing to Sealing. Select Manual/Pressure Cook and adjust the timer to 5 minutes on HIGH pressure. After a few seconds, the ON sign will come on, indicating the pressure is building (you might also hear 3 beeps on some models); pressurizing will take about 7-10 minutes, and then the 5-minute timer will begin.
- Once the timer is done, allow the pressure to release naturally for 5 minutes and after, manually let off the remaining steam (quick release).
- Add the greens. Open the pot, most of the water should have been absorbed into the pasta. While really hot, add the leafy greens to the pasta and stir through. The heat should wilt the greens but you can also pop a lid on top for a minute or two to create some steam.
- Finish with cream. Finally, stir the cream into the pasta. If it’s cold out of the fridge, you might want to press the Keep Warm button and leave the pasta to heat up again. Serve with shaved or grated Parmesan cheese or any other cheese if you have some on hand. Sprinkle with a little pepper (optional).
Notes
Sausage: You can use Italian mild or hot ground sausage meat or squeeze the meat out of sausage links.
Cream: You can use half/half or thickened cream, or a lighter version to lower the calories.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups of pasta
- Calories: 643
- Sugar: 8.7 g
- Sodium: 1435.6 mg
- Fat: 24.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 9.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 57.1 g
- Fiber: 2.6 g
- Protein: 20.9 g
- Cholesterol: 58.8 mg
Keywords: Instant Pot, Pasta, Easy, Dinner, Italian, Sausage, Spinach
I changed it a tiny bit to use what I had and it was AMAZING!! I used a whole box of penne pasta (1lb or 16 oz) 3 1/2 cups water and Alfredo sauce, salt, pepper,Italian seasoning and dehydrated onion! I cooked bacon in a skillet and chopped it up and stirred in at the end. I didn’t have spinach like the recipe called for and I believe chopped kale would have suited my tastes and senses better. My 4 kids loved it and my husband finished his bowl quick and I caught him eating more directly from the Instant Pot after. Awesome recipe and directions!
★★★★★
Thanks and love your variation of this recipe!
Pretty good – though there was more than enough delicious sauce, the pasta was decidedly overcooked using recipe as written (with best guesses on conversion from Metric). Will try again with less liquid + shorter cook time.
Conversion to Imperial would be appreciated as there’s no way to figure out portions in the States without an actual scale.
★★★★