Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta is a delicious one-pot main dish recipe and is ideal for all pasta lovers that can be prepared under 20 minutes in an instant pot pressure cooker.
Sometimes, when you crave a simple pasta meal for your family, You can make this pasta with creamy tomato sauce in a jiffy. Dump everything in an Instant Pot, pressure cooker, and done in under 20 minutes.
You can also add some vegetables like peas, corn, carrots with the sauce, fresh basil, or parsley for garnish and serve with garlic bread and soup.
Check out my other Tomato recipes from my blog, like tomato rice using coconut milk, creamy tomato soup, tomato slice chaat, tomato basil pasta.
This recipe is Perfect for?
- Kids lunch box or when making a lunch or dinner in a hurry.
- Using few ingredients which is an economical meal
More Pasta recipe you might like: Butternut Squash Pasta, Avocado Pasta, Mayonnaise Veggie Pasta, Cold Pasta Salad, Creamy Spinach Pasta, Mac and Cheese (Instant Pot)
Creamy Tomato Pasta Ingredients
- dry penne pasta
- Marinara Sauce or marinara or pizza sauce or tomato puree
- water
- virgin olive oil
- garlic
- Green peas
- Dried basil or herbs
- Red chilli flakes
- Salt or to taste
- heavy cream
- mozzarella or parmesan or cheese of your choice
How to make Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta
Instant Pot Method
Press SAUTE on Instant Pot. Add olive oil and once it’s hot, add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds or aromatic.
Then add dry pasta, green peas, water or broth, red chili flakes, herbs, and salt to the instant pot. Spread tomato sauce on the top. Gently push all pasta under the liquid. Please do not mix it. Most of the pasta should be covered in sauce and water. If it is not, add some more water.
*Burnt Alert? If your instant pot has shown BURN in the past, add ½ cup of extra water. In newer versions of Instant Pot, many people have faced burn issues. So that's why we are just spreading sauce on top of the pasta.
Close the Instant Pot with pressure valve to Sealing. Cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.
Note: Generally The time to cook pasta in an instant pot is usually half of the suggested time on the pasta box and minus one for al dente pasta.
Using penne pasta in this recipe takes 10 minutes to cook on the stovetop. So to cook on Instant Pot - Divide the cooking time by half and minus one for al dente pasta. So it's 4 minutes. For softer pasta, do 5 minutes.
When the instant pot beeps, Wait 2-3 minutes and Quick Release the remaining pressure manually.
Stir in the heavy cream and cheese, and mix everything well. Add more cream and cheese if you want a more creamy texture.
Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta is ready to be served.
What to Serve with Creamy Tomato Sauce Pasta
You can enjoy a big bowl of Pasta with creamy tomato sauce and call it a meal, but if you want to go all out, the following foods go great with tomato pasta!
Caprese Salad
Also check my Kids Lunch Box Series Posts
Creamy Tomato Pasta + Chocolate & Nut Berry Seeds Mix + Blackberries
Variations
- If you don’t have olive oil, you can use butter or regular cooking oil as well.
- If you don’t have cream at home, you can replace it with the same amount of mayonnaise or full-fat milk OR cashew or almond cream if vegan.
- You can also add sweet corn and some chopped spinach or kale after the pressure cooking cycle.
- You can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.
- You can use any pasta. Try using whole wheat, lentils, or veggie pasta for kids.
Tips
- Pasta sauce should not be too thick else after mixing pasta they become dry when eaten later.
- The time to cook pasta in an instant pot is usually half of the suggested time on the pasta box and minus one for al dente pasta.
- BURN ALERT? If your instant pot has shown BURN in the past, add ½ cup of extra water while making this pasta. Tomato-based sauces easily stick to the bottom of the pot during sauteing. So that's the reason we are just spreading sauce on top of the pasta.
- Make sure you have enough water to cover most of the pasta under water. Depending on the shape and size of the pasta, you may need more or less liquids.
- Always stir in cream, cheese, etc, after the pressure cooking cycle.
More Pasta Recipes
- White Sauce Pasta
- Taco Pasta
- Fettuccini Alfredo
- Creamy Spinach Pasta
- Butternut Squash Pasta
- Mac and Cheese
Creamy Tomato Pasta
Equipment
Ingredients
Measuring cup used ,1 cup = 250ml
- 8 oz dry penne pasta (about 2-2.5 cups)
- 12 oz marinara sauce pizza sauce or tomato puree (about 1.5 cups)
- 2 cups water
- 1 teaspoon virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic minced or garlic powder
- ½ cup green peas (i used frozen)
- 2 teaspoon dried basil or herbs
- ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes
- salt to taste
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup mozzarella or parmesan or cheese of your choice
Instructions
Instant Pot Method:
- Press SAUTE on Instant Pot. Add olive oil and once it’s hot, add minced garlic and saute for 30 seconds or aromatic.
- Then add dry pasta, green peas, water or broth, red chili flakes, herbs, and salt to the instant pot. Spread tomato sauce on the top.
- Gently push all pasta under the liquid. Please do not mix it. Most of the pasta should be covered in sauce and water. If it is not, add some more water. *Burnt Alert? If your instant pot has shown BURN in the past, add ½ cup of extra water. In newer versions of Instant Pot, many people have faced burn issues. So that's why we are just spreading sauce on top of the pasta.
- Close the Instant Pot with pressure valve to Sealing. Cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.Note: Generally The time to cook pasta in an instant pot is usually half of the suggested time on the pasta box and minus one for al dente pasta.
- Using penne pasta in this recipe has 10 minutes for cooking on the stovetop. So to cook on Instant Pot - Divide the cooking time by half and minus one for al dente pasta. So it's 4 minutes. For softer pasta, do 5 minutes.
- When the instant pot beeps, Wait 2-3 minutes and Quick Release the remaining pressure manually.
- Stir in the heavy cream and cheese, mix everything well. Add more cream and cheese if you want a more creamy texture.
- Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta is ready to be served.
Video
Notes
Variations
- If you don’t have olive oil, you can use butter or regular cooking oil as well.
- If you don’t have cream at home you can replace with same amount of mayonnaise or full fat milk OR cashew or almond cream if vegan.
- You can also add sweet corn and some chopped spinach or kale after the pressure cooking cycle.
- Can use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic.
- You can use any kind of pasta’s. Try using whole wheat, lentils or veggie pasta for kids.
Tips
- Pasta sauce should not be too thick else after mixing pasta they become dry when eaten later.
- The time to cook pasta in instant pot is usually half of the suggested time on the pasta box and minus one for al dente pasta.
- BURN ALERT ? If your instant pot has shown BURN in the past, add ½ cup of extra water while making this pasta. Tomato based sauces easily stick to the bottom of the pot during sauteing. So thats the reason we are just spreading sauce on top of the pasta.
- Make sure you have enough water to cover most of the pasta under water. Depending on the shape and size of pasta you may need more or less liquids.
- Always stir in cream, cheese etc after the pressure cooking cycle.
Nutrition
Recipe collections to try from My Blog
75+ Healthy Kids Lunch Box Recipes
25+ Instant Pot Indian Rice Recipes
8 Healthy Toddler Indian Breakfast Ideas
Edward Splinter says
This is absolutely wonderful. And so easy to make, taking very little time to prepare.
The second time we made this, we used chicken stock instead of water and added one cup of rotisserie chicken (shredded). A great version of this.
Thank you for sharing!
Bhavana Patil says
That's great to know, thank you for sharing your feedback Edward. We love making pasta's in Instant Pot too.
Sankalp Packaged Foods says
The rich, velvety sauce combined with perfectly cooked pasta creates a heavenly flavor explosion.