Sassy Casserole

Sassy Casserole–Instant Pot ground beef, pasta and salsa casserole with cheese and a crunchy topping.

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Sassy Casserole

Today’s recipe is a sassy twist on a ground beef and pasta casserole. With the addition of salsa or picante sauce and green chiles the flavor is kicked up a notch. This recipe has been adapted from Sassy Southwest Stuffed Shells on Taste of Home. The author, Kellie, said, “When I was a child, my mom made this dish quite often. When I came across her recipe on an index card, I quickly copied it. Over the years, I have made very few changes to retain that taste-of-home memory.”

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Lean ground beef–or ground turkey
• Salt and pepper
• Carrot
• Green onions
• Garlic cloves–or 1 tsp garlic powder
• Beef broth–or water and Better than Bouillon
• Radiatore pasta–or penne, macaroni, bowtie
• Diced green chiles–I used mild
• Tomato sauce
• Picante sauce–or salsa
• Cheddar–I used sharp
• French fried onions

Steps

Turn Instant Pot to saute setting. When display says HOT add in the ground beef and break it up. Brown for 5 minutes. Drain off excess grease. Lightly salt and pepper the beef. 

Stir in the carrot, green onions and garlic.

Pour in the broth and scrape bottom of pot so that nothing is sticking. Turn off Instant Pot.

Evenly sprinkle in the pasta.

Dump the green chiles, tomato sauce and picante sauce on top. Don’t stir.

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 half of the cheese.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and then sprinkle the onions on top. Serve and enjoy! 

Notes/Tips

• Serve with roasted asparagus and a side of fresh fruit.
• I used my 6 quart Instant Pot*. You can also make this in a 3 or 8 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. The french fried onions will get soggy in the fridge but the rest of the casserole will taste great as leftovers.
• Other recipes you can make with picante sauce are College Casserole and 5-ingredient salsa chicken.
• If you use another type of pasta you may need to adjust the cooking time. Here is the formula: look at the back of the box of pasta and see how many minutes it says to boil the pasta. If it’s 10 minutes you divide that number by 2 (=5) and then subtract 2 minutes. So you would pressure cook for 3 minutes. I usually use a 5-10 minute natural pressure release for pasta. 

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*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.