Instant Pot Christmas Confetti Pasta–shrimp and pasta with red and green pops of color from bell peppers. A fast dump and go pressure cooker recipe!
Instant Pot Christmas Confetti Pasta
Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you are enjoying the season. I have a fast and easy recipe for you to make for dinner tonight so you can focus on other things besides cooking and cleaning up a meal! This is a festive red and green dish that is so easy to make! Plus it is super yummy to eat. It’s basically a shrimp alfredo type of dish with bell peppers. The cool part about this recipes is that the pasta, shrimp and vegetables can all be cooked at the same time without overcooking. This is due to the shrimp and vegetables being cooked above the pasta in a pot-in-pot dish.
Ingredients you’ll need to make Christmas Fettuccine
- Water
- Better than Bouillon chicken base–you can also use bouillon cubes or broth in the place of water and bouillon base
- Dry onion flakes–you can also use a half cup of fresh onions
- Garlic powder
- Kosher salt
- Oregano
- Cayenne pepper
- Black pepper
- Linguine or Fettuccine–for even more green color try using spinach fettuccine!
- Frozen, uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp–mine had the tail off, but you can use whatever you like best
- Red bell pepper
- Green bell pepper
- Olive oil
- Heavy cream (optional)–this makes the dish more creamy and delicious but it’s not necessary
- Parmesan cheese
Equipment Needed to make Christmas Shrimp Pasta
- 6 quart Instant Pot*, you can also use an 8 quart Instant Pot.
- Tall trivet*
- Pan* for pot-in-pot cooking
Related: 5 Ways The Instant Pot Can Enhance Your Christmas Experience
How to make Shrimp Pasta in the Instant Pot
- Pour water into bottom of Instant Pot. Add in the bouillon, onion, garlic powder, salt, oregano, cayenne and pepper.
- Break the pasta in half and scatter it into the pot in a criss cross pattern (this will help prevent it from sticking together).
- In a pan that you use for pot-in-pot cooking add the shrimp and top with the peppers. Drizzle the oil over the top.
- Place a tall trivet into the Instant Pot over the fettuccine. Place the uncovered pan of shrimp and peppers on the top of the trivet.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 6 minutes. When time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Remove the pan and the trivet. Turn off Instant pot. Stir the shrimp and peppers into the pasta. Stir in the cream and the parmesan.
- Taste test and add more seasoning to taste, if needed. Serve and enjoy!
Can I make this with chicken instead?
Yes you can. I would use chicken tenders and throw them in directly on top of the pasta instead of pot-in-pot. They’ll work perfectly with the 6 minute pressure cooking time. Another idea is to use bite size pieces of chicken thighs.
Can I make this with spaghetti instead?
Yes you can. I would place the shrimp and peppers on top of the spaghetti (don’t use the pot in pot dish) and only pressure cook for 3 minutes.
Can I make this with cooked shrimp?
Yes you can. Don’t pressure cook the cooked shrimp. Stir them into the pasta afterwards and use the saute setting. Stir often until the shrimp are warmed through.
More Christmas Recipes…
Instant Pot Cranberry Apple Pecan Rice Pilaf
Instant Pot Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole
Crockpot Cinnamon Candied Almonds
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc. Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
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Instant Pot Christmas Confetti Pasta
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 6 minutes (plus 5-10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 21 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
Shrimp and pasta with red and green pops of color from bell peppers. A fast dump and go pressure cooker recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 Tbsp Better than Bouillon chicken base
- 2 Tbsp dry onion flakes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 8 ounces linguine or fettuccine
- 1 pound frozen uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp
- 1 red bell pepper, cored and diced
- 1 green bell pepper, cored and diced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Pour water into bottom of Instant Pot. Add in the bouillon, onion, garlic powder, salt, oregano, cayenne and pepper.
- Break the pasta in half and scatter it into the pot in a criss cross pattern (this will help prevent it from sticking together).
- In a pan that you use for pot-in-pot cooking add the shrimp and top with the peppers. Drizzle the oil over the top.
- Place a tall trivet into the Instant Pot over the fettuccine. Place the uncovered shrimp and peppers pan on the top of the trivet.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 6 minutes. When time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Remove the pan and the trivet. Turn off Instant pot. Stir the shrimp and peppers into the pasta. Stir in the cream and the parmesan.
- Taste test and add more seasoning to taste, if needed. Serve and enjoy!
- Category: Seafood
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I only had a 12 oz. bag of shrimp but it was substantial. Used linguine so only used a 5 min. cook time instead of 6. It was very good with the peppers but will try again using asparagus and red peppers.
★★★★★
I love the idea of asparagus!
Your recipes are great and I really love them. Thank you
Thanks so much Claire! Merry Christmas!
My Dad said it “was the best pasta, sauce and shrimp I’ve ever had.” I put this recipe on repeat. It is delicious, quick and easy and a big hit.
★★★★★
What a compliment! Thank you so much for the review!
Can’t rave enough over this dish, which was devoured last night. However, I had the strangest issue in my I.P. “Max”. I assembled the dish as followed, and the dish never quite made it it to pressure. I ended up releasing the steam and switching to saute. Again, fantastic outcome and will make often. I find myself wondering if I could have simply placed the frozen shrimp, peppers and oil directly over the pasta itself, and then proceed. Can’t wait to hear back on this.
★★★★★
I am replying to “me” :). But of course wanting your wisdom before proceeding with your wonderful recipe again. My goal is to put the frozen Shrimps, peppers, and oil drizzle directly over the Linguine, unless you say no…wondering if you would change the cooking time/resting in any manner whatsoever if I could do it in the manner I am interested in. When done I would simply stir in the parm and cream and proceed to devour….again 🙂 It is such a wonderful dish. I sure don’t know why my IP never got to pressure the other day. I thought maybe it was broken, but today it worked fine for something else I cooked.
★★★★★
You could definitely try it. The reason I didn’t do that is because I was concerned the shrimp and peppers would overcook. But maybe if they are placed on top and not stirred it they will be okay.
I made this today because it’s snowy and blustery and I needed some easy ideas for dinner. I used frozen thin-sliced chicken breasts instead of the shrimp and Banza gluten-free corkscrew pasta. I was worried about he pasta because it foams badly on the stovetop.
I can’t complain about a single thing!
The family had all kinds of ideas for pot pie, dumplings, etc, lol.
I think this will be a go-to recipe because it was so quick and easy and uses ingredients I almost always have in hand. Thank you!
★★★★★
I’m so glad to hear that it worked out with the gluten free pasta! Thanks for sharing your experience 🙂