This easy Italian Friendship Casserole makes enough to serve two families. One for you and one for a friend! It’s got pasta, sauce, meat and cheese…kids and adults both love it. Use your Instant Pot to get the recipe going quickly.
Italian Friendship Casserole
I love recipes like this one! You get double the results for a single effort. This recipe is called friendship casserole because it makes enough for your family and for another family too. And you do the exact same amount of work! Win-win! This recipe is also awesome to make ahead and freeze or refrigerate for another day (see the notes section for how).
My kids, husband and I all took this down quickly! It is just super delicious and teens especially love it! It’s got common ingredients that you’re likely to have around the house too. You can double this recipe or cut it in half depending on who you’re serving it to. So there’s no reason not to make this! Add it to your menu this week.
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Chicken broth–or water and Better than Bouillon Chicken Base
- Ziti–or penne pasta
- Butter
- Onion powder
- Garlic powder
- Black pepper
- Parmesan cheese–shredded or grated.
- Ground beef–meat is optional in this dish. You can also use ground turkey or even half beef and half Italian sausage.
- Spaghetti sauce–use what you like best, there’s so many great sauces out there
- Shredded cheese–I used a mozzarella, provolone and cheddar blend
Steps
Pour broth into Instant Pot. Add in the ziti and 2 Tbsp of the butter.
Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
Stir in the butter until melted. Stir in the onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and parmesan cheese. (These noodles are good enough to eat by themselves!).
Get out 2 square baking pans (9×9 inches). In each pan layer one quarter of the meat and sauce, half of the noodles, then split the remaining meat and sauce between the two. Top each with half of the shredded cheese. Cover each pan with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350° F. Remove foil and bake for 5 more minutes. Serve and enjoy. If you’re not ready to eat right away keep the foil on the pan and keep in the oven on the warming setting.
Notes/Tips
- The recipe as stated makes two 9×9 inch pans. If you’d like to make two large 9×13 inch pans then double the ingredients (serves a total of 16-20 people). For the pressure cooking time you’ll want to decrease the cooking time to 2 minutes (with a 5 minute natural pressure release). You can also halve this recipe if you’d just like one 9×9 inch pan. Halve all the ingredients and keep the cooking time the same.
- This is the perfect meal to make for a friend who just had a baby or is in need. I like to get started early and make it ahead of time just so I know I’ll be ready to bring it over on time. I keep the foil on the pan and keep it in the oven on the warm setting until I’m ready to bring it over.
- When I plan to give this recipe away I love using a disposable foil pan so the recipient doesn’t need to worry about getting dishes back to me. I order them on amazon*.
- This is also a perfect make ahead meal! You can make this recipe through step 4 and then place in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to bake. If you’re cooking from the fridge you’ll want to bake it for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. If you’re baking from frozen you’ll want to bake it for 90 minutes.
- Serve with a green salad with Olive Garden Italian salad dressing and some garlic bread or french bread.
- I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in an 8 quart pot. If you cut the recipe in half you can use the 3 quart pot.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Try adding in some sauteed green bell peppers, onions and mushrooms for a veggie variation!
- You might also like 5 {Easy} CrockPot Meal Ideas To Bring To A Friend That Just Had A Baby!
More Friendly Recipes…
Instant Pot Amish Friendship Soup
A delicious soup mix that you can make and eat now or layer in glass jars and give as gifts! With ground beef, whole grains and legumes it is hearty and will keep you full.
Best Friends Casserole
One pan for you, one pan for your friend. An easy recipe for a noodle bake with marinara sauce, mozzarella and more. Use your Instant Pot to prep this recipe fast!
Friendsgiving Casserole
Friendsgiving casserole is a chicken/turkey and gravy dish topped with french fried onions. Ladle it over any of your favorite Thanksgiving favorites like mashed potatoes or stuffing.
Friendship Bread
Sweet Amish cinnamon friendship bread that doesn’t need a starter and is cooked in your Instant Pot, slow cooker or oven.
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.
Italian Friendship Casserole
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 servings 1x
Description
This easy Italian Friendship Casserole makes enough to serve two families. One for you and one for a friend! It’s got pasta, sauce, meat and cheese…kids and adults both love it. Use your Instant Pot to get the recipe going quickly.
Ingredients
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (16 oz) box ziti
- 1/2 cup butter, divided
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 2 pounds browned ground beef (optional)
- 2 (24 oz) jars spaghetti sauce
- 3 cups shredded cheese (I used a mozzarella, provolone and cheddar blend)
Instructions
- Pour broth into Instant Pot. Add in the ziti and 2 Tbsp of the butter.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 3 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Stir in the butter until melted. Stir in the onion powder, garlic powder, pepper and parmesan cheese.
- Get out 2 square baking pans (9×9 inches). In each pan layer one quarter of the meat and sauce, half of the noodles, then split the remaining meat and sauce between the two. Top each with half of the shredded cheese. Cover each pan with foil.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 350° F. Remove foil and bake for 5 more minutes. Serve and enjoy. If you’re not ready to eat right away keep the foil on the pan and keep in the oven on the warming setting.
Notes
The recipe as stated makes two 9×9 inch pans. If you’d like to make two large 9×13 inch pans then double the ingredients (serves a total of 16-20 people). For the pressure cooking time you’ll want to decrease the cooking time to 2 minutes with a 5 minute natural pressure release. You can also halve this recipe if you’d just like one 9×9 inch pan. Halve all the ingredients and keep the cooking time the same.
If you don’t have browned ground beef on hand you can use the Instant Pot on the saute setting to brown the beef. Once browned move it to a bowl. Dump the sauce into the bowl with the meat. Wash out the Instant Pot and then pressure cook the pasta portion of the recipe.
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Instant Pot and Oven
*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.
Why do you decrease the noodle cook time if you double the recipe?
Because there is a lot more food and broth in the pot it takes longer to come to pressure and the whole time it is building pressure it is actually cooking so you’ll need less time.
What are your thoughts on freezing one for baking in the future?
★★★★★
YES! This is a perfect make ahead meal! You can make this recipe through step 4 and then place in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to bake. If you’re cooking from the fridge you’ll want to bake it for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. If you’re baking from frozen you’ll want to bake it for 90 minutes.
Poorly written recipe. Meat and sauce must be cooked before layering. Defeats the purpose of using the Instant pot as this is labor intensive and uses many pans to cook.
★
I bet there is a way to brown the meat, scrape the pot, add noddles and broth. Than drain after short cook of noodles and than the cheese, butter and red sauce add in the pot to stir/mix well together than dump into baking dish pans. Put in Oven just long enough to melt cheese on top. You can probably cook and meat and noddles in the same pot but at different times. Don’t clean in between.
Here’s what I’d do: cook noodles as directed and set aside. Then in same instant pot, brown meat and added in veggies plus extra seasoning. When done, stir in sauce. This can stay warm in pot. Put together casseroles. I usually make an instant pot marinara in bulk and freeze so I can use it in recipes like this.
This is what I would do Kathyann:
Use the Instant Pot on the saute setting to brown the beef. Once browned move it to a bowl. Dump the sauce into the bowl with the meat.
Wash out the Instant Pot and then do the pasta portion of the recipe.
I really wanna make the Friendship Casserole bit I don’t have an instant. Can I use anything else ? If so, do you have the recipe for that ? I would also like to make the Spasagna .Same issue.
No problem for this one. Simply cook the pasta on your stove top untill al dente, drain pasta, add butter and seasonings to drained pasta and then follow the recipe from there. Happy cooking
It is cooked separately. So, it is browned/cooked and then added to the baking pans in the layers.
Can’t wait to make this but one question: is the meat browned separately or put into the casserole raw?
It is browned separately 🙂