Name: Instant Pot Pasta With Tomato Meatballs
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 20-22 raw meatballs (less or more depending on size, see notes on options) 450 g /1 lb dry penne pasta; 2.5 cups water (rinse the sauce jar) 22-23 ounces / 600-650 g ready-made pasta sauce of choice (from a jar); 1.5 tsp Italian seasoning/herbs; 1.5 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 tsp salt

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Learn how to make a quick and easy Instant Pot pasta with tomato meatballs. Using penne pasta, favorite type of meatballs, tomato sauce and a few classic seasonings, this beginner-friendly, step-by-step recipe is a must for family dinners. Please, leave a rating or comment at the bottom of this post if you’ve made this recipe or have any questions!

This Instant Pot tomato meatball pasta is delicious and easy to make and is perfect for any time of the year. This is a one-pot recipe, meaning that you cook the pasta and meatballs in a little stock and tomato sauce at the same time, giving you a super quick, fuss-free dinner in no time.

If you’ve never cooked with Instant Pot meatball pasta before, this is a great recipe for beginners. You can also check out these Instant Pot wild recipes for more inspiration.

INGREDIENTS FOR MEATBALL PASTA

As we mentioned, this is a beginner-friendly, step-by-step recipe and these are the ingredients you will need to make our Instant Pot meatball pasta.

Pasta: For this particular recipe, we used penne pasta. Our timings will work with fusilli, rotini, rigatoni or larger shell pasta as well.
Meatballs: You can use any type of meatballs – beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian – and these can be ready-to-go, store-bought meatballs or you can make those yourself ahead of time. You can also use frozen pre-cooked meatballs in this recipe’s timings. We used pork and beef meatballs. We suggest 4-5 meatballs per adult serving.
Sauce: The pasta and meatballs are cooked in water/stock and ready-made tomato sauce. You can use any sauce from a jar that you like. We used a really basic tomato sauce and added extra seasonings like garlic and onion powder and herbs, which can be omitted if you have a very flavorful sauce. Tip: In our picture above, the water is red as we used it to rinse the jar from the sauce.

You will find the recipe for this meatball pasta just below or you can jump to detailed step-by-step photo instructions under the recipe card. These are especially handy if you’re an Instant Pot beginner.

You might like more recipes from our Instant Pot For Beginners series:

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Instant Pot Pasta With Tomato Meatballs

Author: Instant Pot Eats
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 6 1x
Category: Main
Method: Instant Pot
Cuisine: Italian

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Description

This delicious Instant Pot penne pasta with tomato meatballs is a one-pot recipe perfect for the whole family. Use your favorite meatballs – beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian version – and ready-made tomato sauce for a fuss-free, easy meal.

Ingredients

Scale

20–22 raw meatballs (less or more depending on size, see notes on options)

450 g /1 lb dry penne pasta

2.5 cups water (rinse the sauce jar)

22–23 ounces / 600-650 g ready-made pasta sauce of choice (from a jar)

1.5 tsp Italian seasoning/herbs

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Add ingredients. Add the pasta and meatballs to the inner pot. Pour in the water (we like to rinse the sauce jar with the water we use) and stir through gently to allow the liquid to sink to the bottom.
Pour the tomato sauce over the top covering all of the meatballs and pasta. Spread evenly but don’t stir! Sprinkle the herbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper over the top.
Set to cook. Secure and lock the lid. Make sure the pressure handle is pointing to Sealing on Duo Classic. Select Manual/Pressure Cook and use the + and – keys to adjust the time to 4 minutes on HIGH pressure. After a few beeps/seconds, the ON sign will come on indicating the pot is heating up and the pressure is building. If cooking frozen raw meatballs, set to 6 minutes.
The Instant Pot will now take about 13-14 minutes to come to pressure. The more liquid/ingredients you have in the pot, the longer it might take. After 10 minutes, you might hear hissing and boiling sounds coming from the pot. Once the pressure is built up, the float valve will come to the UP position. Note, that the cooking begins during the pressurizing stage.
Release: Once the timer is done, the Instant Pot will change to a natural pressure release stage. For things like pasta, you don’t want to leave it on natural release for more than about 5 minutes as the penne will keep cooking at a slower rate and can get too soft. We recommend releasing the pressure manually using Quick Release after about 3 minutes. Simply press the pressure release button down or point the steam release handle to Venting. Be careful to keep your hands and face away from the steam jet; you can hover a towel over it to catch any foam. Once all pressure is released, the float valve will go down again and you will able to open the lid.
Use a spoon or a spatula to stir the pasta, meatballs and the sauce, making sure to scrape all the bits from the bottom. Serve in bowls with shaved cheese and fresh parsley or basil.

Notes

Pressurizing: 13-14 minutes | Cooking at HIGH pressure: 4 minutes | Release: natural release for 3 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure.

You can add chili, fresh garlic instead of garlic powder, paprika or other spices.
Vegetable stock can be used instead of water, in which case you can omit any extra salt.
If you’re using simple unflavored tomato sauce rather than a ready-made, seasoned pasta sauce, add more salt and seasoning, including some onion powder.
Frozen pre-cooked meatballs can be used instead and the instructions and cooking time will remain the same. If the frozen meatballs aren’t cooked, change from 4 minutes to 6 minutes. Vegetarian/vegan balls can be used instead of meatballs.
Other suitable pasta types for this recipe include medium-shaped fusilli, rigatoni, rotini, and farfalle.
You can add chopped carrots, celery, zucchini, olives, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant and other vegetables into the pasta.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 bowl of pasta with sauce + 4 meatballs
Calories: 658
Sugar: 9.9 g
Sodium: 489.7 mg
Fat: 27.1 g
Saturated Fat: 9.5 g
Carbohydrates: 68.4 g
Fiber: 6.2 g
Protein: 31.8 g
Cholesterol: 82.8 mg

Keywords: Pasta, Instant Pot, Meatballs, Italian, Penne, Pressure Cooking, Dinner

HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT PASTA & MEATBALLS

Here are step-by-step instructions for making the meatball pasta in the Instant Pot. We made it in the Instant Pot Duo Classic & Nova 6-quart pressure cooker.

Step 1. Add the pasta and meatballs to the inner pot. Pour in the water (rinse the sauce jar with the water you use) and stir through gently to allow the liquid to sink to the bottom.

Step 2. Pour the tomato sauce over the top covering all of the meatballs and pasta. Spread evenly but don’t stir! Sprinkle the Italian herbs/seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper over the top.

Step 3. Secure and lock the lid. Make sure the pressure handle is pointing to Sealing on Duo Classic. Select Manual/Pressure Cook and use the + and – keys to adjust the time to 4 minutes on HIGH pressure. After a few beeps/seconds, the ON sign will come on indicating the pot is heating up and the pressure is building.

The Instant Pot will now take about 13-14 minutes to come to pressure. The more liquid/ingredients you have in the pot, the longer it might take. Once the pressure is built up, the float valve will come to the UP position. Once the timer is done, the Instant Pot will change to a natural pressure release stage. We recommend releasing the pressure manually using Quick Release after about 3 minutes. Simply press the pressure release button down or point the steam release handle to Venting. Be careful to keep your hands and face away from the steam jet; you can hover a towel over it to catch any foam. Once all pressure is released, the float valve will go down again and you will able to open the lid.

Step 4. Use a spoon or a spatula to stir the pasta, meatballs and the sauce, making sure to scrape all the bits from the bottom. Serve in bowls with shaved cheese and fresh parsley or basil.

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