Instant Pot Creamy Beef and Penne–ground beef, garlic, penne pasta, fire roasted tomatoes, cream cheese, spinach and pine nuts cooked quickly and in one pot, your Instant Pot. An amazing pasta dish that your whole family will love!
Instant Pot Creamy Beef and Penne
I think you’re really going to like this pasta dish! I’ve been making a similar recipe called Thieves Pasta for years but it was a meatless dish. I took that recipe and added in the beef and made a few changes for this Instant Pot version. It was a winner and was devoured within minutes. Try it out at your house and let me know what you think!
A few notes about the ingredients:
Pasta: I used whole wheat penne pasta. You can use regular penne, cavatappi, rigatoni and many other types of pasta for this recipe.
Lean ground beef: Because my beef was so lean I didn’t have any grease to drain off. If you use a fattier beef you may need to drain off the grease before adding in the rest of the ingredients.
Ground red pepper: the red pepper gives this pasta the slightest of kicks. You can leave this out if you prefer.
Fire roasted tomatoes: I used Hunt’s fire roasted tomatoes with garlic but you can also just use a can of regular diced tomatoes. The dish won’t have as much pizzazz but it will still taste good.
More Instant Pot beef recipes you’ll love…
Instant Pot Creamy Mock Lasagna Noodles
See all my beef recipes
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Creamy Beef and Penne I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
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Instant Pot Creamy Beef and Penne
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Description
Ground beef, garlic, penne pasta, fire roasted tomatoes, cream cheese, spinach and pine nuts cooked quickly and in one pot, your Instant Pot. An amazing pasta dish that your whole family will love!
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 ounces uncooked penne pasta (I used whole wheat pasta)
- 1 3/4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 4 ounces (half a brick) cream cheese
- 3 cups coarsely chopped spinach
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
Instructions
- Turn your Instant Pot to the saute setting. When the display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up*. Sprinkle in the salt. Brown the beef. Then add in the garlic. Stir in just ¼ cup of the broth and scrape the bottom of the pot. Use a spoon to spread the beef evenly in the bottom of the pot.
- Add in the pasta in an even layer. Pour the rest of broth over the top. Don’t stir. Add in the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, ground red pepper and basil. Don’t stir.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure button to 4 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit for 5 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the cream cheese and spinach and pine nuts. The cream cheese will melt fairly quickly. Stir until incorporated.
- Scoop onto serving dishes and enjoy!
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Italian
*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.
Great recipe with a few adjustments. I used gluten free penne by Jovial(Walmart) reduced cook time by one minute because gluten free pasta seems to absorb water more so I added an additional 1/4 cup of the chicken broth. Absolutely delicious! Thanks so much!
★★★★★
Good to know it worked with gluten free pasta!
I made this tonight I also sauted red peppers with my 97% lean ground beef.
I made in my air fryer cheese biscuits for my side dish this meal was so yummy ty Karen.
★★★★★
The cheese biscuits sound good Brenda! So glad you liked it!
Hi there,
This recipe was so delicious! Thank you so much for sharing. I also have the Instant Pot Duo 6 Quart and wanted to know if I am able to double the recipe, and if yes, what changes would I need to make. Thanks so much for your help.
★★★★★
Double the ingredients and keep the same cooking time: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-double-instant-pot-recipes/
How much is one serving?
Can this recipe be made in the slow cooker?
I don’t like making pasta like penne in the slow cooker. It gets mushy and doesn’t seem to cook evenly. But you could make this on the stove top.
This is great, my kids even liked it and they hate everything. I didn’t have pine nuts and substituted finely chopped walnuts. Worked great! Will definitely make again!
★★★★★
So happy to hear this Melissa!
Hey Karen…..yur awesome! but you knew that from my comments before….With many of your awesome recipes I have to make some changes as I suffer badly with Chronic Lyme+Co-Infections. I have to use other things other than sugar and flour(yeast) All that said…I noticed in this you mention Pine Nuts….many who have Lyme can not handle pine nuts…not too bad a reaction…the spinach also…but that reaction can be a bit more severe…I wonder what we could substitute? Kale and chick peas? Any thoughts?
Kale would be a great substitution and chick peas would be great too! Good idea 🙂
Hi Karen
Could you please tell me the amt of Red pepper to use and is it the same as Cayenne. This recipe looks so fantastic.
Thank you
Oops sorry it is 1/4 tsp. And yes I believe they’re interchangeable.
Hi Karen this recipe looks fantastic,I just am not sure how much Red Pepper to use. 1/4 of what for the red pepper. I live in Canada and have never seen ground Red Pepper. Is it the same as the Cayenne spice?
Thank You all your recipes look so good.
I made this last night. I used sliced beef stew meat instead of ground beef (it thawed out faster). It was delicious! I’ve used many of your recipes and they have all turned out great! I’ve had my Instant Pot since Christmas. Thanks for a great reference.
★★★★★
Yum! Sounds great with the stew meat. Did you use the same cooking time?
Yes, I used the sauté function and made sure the beef was all browned. It came out very tender. Oh I didn’t have pine nuts on hand so I used chopped walnuts. It was very good.
Did you know that you do not have to thaw your meat when cooking it in the instant pot? Frozen chicken breasts taste absolutely amazing after using to be pressure cook option. They come out so tender and juicy and cooked to perfection.
I made this for dinner last night and loved it. It was good with a lot of interesting ingredients. thank you very much for this recipe
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
I thought one cup of some type of liquid was always needed when you cook with a PC. I’m new to using a PC so please bear with me.
Yes, it has chicken broth in it👍😊
read this article! it will help you understand: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/how-to-halve-instant-pot-recipes/
I would say high manual.
yep, that’s always my default.
Manual HIGH or Manual LOW pressure?
high pressure
I’m interested in your Thieves Pasta. Could you share that recipe?
Sure this is how it is written out in my family cookbook:
1 pound penne pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
36 oz can Italian tomatoes with juice
4-6 T White wine
3 cups frozen spinach, cooked and drained
1 Tbsp sugar
salt, pepper
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
6 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
Heat oil, sate garlic, add tomatoes etc. Let cook 30 minutes on medium low. Add cream cheese, cook another 30 minutes. Add spinach and nuts right before serving.
Karen,
I think your recipes are great along with all the information you provide about pressure cooking!
I make home made penne pasta and let it dry out a day. Would this recipe change if I use my own pasta as opposed to store bought pasta?
Bob, have you tried your homemade pasta in the instant pot ever before? I would be nervous that it would fall apart. If you do try it I would use a shorter pressure cook time and do a natural pressure release. Let me know if you try it and how it goes.