Learn how to make a delicious recipe for Instant Pot tortellini alfredo with Italian sausage. At $2.16 per serve, it’s a simple crowd-pleaser that won’t break the bank. Both rich and flavorful, this tortellini will make you feel like you’re at the finest Italian restaurant—but right at home and without the hefty bill at the end! The Italian sausage keeps costs low and rounds this dish out to be a meal you will be coming back to again and again.
This pressure cooker tortellini recipe is from The Frugal Cooking With Your Instant Pot cookbook by Drew Maresco with Dallyn Maresco. © Page Street Publishing Co. 2020. Photo credit: Toni Zernik
This Instant Pot tortellini recipe is a simple yet super tasty combination of your favorite comfort foods: cheese-filled-pasta, sausage and creamy sauce. It’s a budget-friendly one-pot dish that is perfect for a midweek dinner. And, with the addition of a little spinach, it packs quite a bit of nutrition too.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE TORTELLINI ALFREDO
Tortellini – for this recipe, we’re using cheese-filled tortellini but you could also use spinach and ricotta or any other flavor. The KEY is that the tortellini has to be frozen! Fresh tortellini cooks really fast and because we’re cooking it together with the sausage, we want to get our cooking times aligned (so to speak). Plus, using frozen tortellini is more affordable, which is what keeps the costs down for this dish.
Italian sausage – you can use ground Italian sausage or scoop out the meat from the casings. Mid or sweet sausage is best in this recipe but you could spice it up if you like. Choose the brand that best suits your budget.
For the Alfredo sauce – Parmesan cheese, cream cheese and heavy cream are used to finish the sauce once pressure cooking is done. You can use low-fat cream cheese and cream to lighten up the sauce.
Spinach – simple baby spinach can be used; alternatively, you can chop some Enlighs spinach or any other leafy greens you have on hand. Some pre-steamed broccoli, carrots or peas could also be stirred in right at the end for extra veggies.
As we mentioned above, this one-pot tortellini pressure cooker recipe is from The Frugal Cooking With Your Instant Pot cookbook by Drew Maresco with Dallyn Maresco. You can read about in our review post here.
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Instant Pot Tortellini Alfredo With Italian Sausage
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Learn how to make a budget-friendly Instant Pot Tortellini with Italian sausage in a creamy Alfredo sauce. At $2.61 per serve, this one-pot pasta dish will satisfy the whole family.
Ingredients
Scale1 tbsp (15 ml) canola oil
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb (455 g) ground Italian sausage
1 (14.5-oz [429-ml]) can chicken broth
1 (20-oz [567-g]) package frozen cheese tortellini
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup (175 ml) heavy cream
4 oz (115 g) cream cheese, diced, softened
1 cup (100 g) grated Parmesan cheese
3 cups (90 g) baby spinach
Instructions
- Turn the pot to Sauté mode on HIGH until the screen says HOT Add the oil, then the onion and garlic, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until just softened. Add the sausage and cook for 7-10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Press Cancel to stop the Sauté mode.
- Stir in the broth, tortellini, salt and pepper.
- Secure and lock the lid. On Duo model, make sure the steam release handle is pointing to Sealing.
- Select Manual/Pressure Cook function and adjust the timer to 5 minutes, on HIGH pressure. After 3 beeps, the ON sign will come indicating that the Instant Pot is preheating and building up the pressure, this will take about 5-8 minutes and the timer will appear.
- When the time is up, do a quick release by turning the valve to Venting or pressing the quick release button on newer models. We recommend that you press the button gradually at first to avoid the foam jetting out too quickly (which can happen when you cook starchy foods like pasta).
- Once pressure is released, open the lid. Turn the pot to Sauté mode again on HIGH. Stir in the cream, cream cheese, Parmesan and spinach, until the spinach is wilted. Press Cancel to stop the Sauté.
- Serve while hot!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cup-fulls
- Calories: 735
- Sugar: 3.1 g
- Sodium: 1685.3 mg
- Fat: 46.6 g
- Saturated Fat: 21.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 48.3 g
- Fiber: 2.4 g
- Protein: 30.9 g
- Cholesterol: 138.7 mg
Keywords: Pasta, Tortellini, Alfredo, Italian Sausage, Instant Pot, Pressure Cooking, Dinner, Budget
SAVE THIS INSTANT POT TORTELLINI ALFREDO TO PINTEREST
What if the tortellini is not frozen? It’s just the refrigerated kind. Was wondering how long to pressure cook or do we need to pressure cook at all?
Fresh tortellini cooks really fast and because we’re cooking it together with the sausage, we want to get our cooking times aligned. So I wouldn’t pressurize the tortellini at all, the residual heat after cooking the other ingredients should be enough to warm it up.
I made this tonight & it was absolutely delicious. I used 2 different kinds of venison sausage–1 hot & 1sweet Italian with wine–and it was outstanding. The only thing I would change is I wouldn’t add as much salt. I used a reduced sodium chicken broth & the teaspoon of salt and it was a bit too salty for us. But it could have been from the sausage. Anyway, next time, I’ll reduce the salt or eliminate it completely. This one is definitely a keeper 🙂
★★★★★