Train Wreck Casserole

Train Wreck Casserole–rotini pasta with ground beef and a creamy tomato sauce. An easy Instant Pot recipe!

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Train Wreck Casserole

This recipe was adapted from The Real Train Wreck Casserole on Baking Not Writing. The author stated, “The origin of this name is less gross than I thought. Apparently, on one of our family cross-country train trips we saw out the window that there had been an accident on another line. A truck filled with canned tomatoes had been hit by a train. The cans of tomatoes had exploded everywhere and my Dad made a comment that it looked just like this casserole that my Mom had invented. The name stuck.”

It’s true that this dish doesn’t look the most appetizing! But it was really tasty. Greg and I ate almost the entire pot by ourselves. With only 6 main ingredients (I didn’t count salt, pepper and water) and a 4 minute pressure cooking time this recipe comes together super fast. It’s perfect with a tossed green salad and some garlic toast. Enjoy! Choo choo!

Ingredients/Substitution Ideas

• Lean ground beef–or ground turkey
• Onion–yellow, white
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Water
• Better than Bouillon Beef Base
• Rotini pasta–or another short cut pasta
• Tomato paste
• Cream cheese–or Velveeta

Steps

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

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

Stir in the beef base. Sprinkle the rotini pasta into the pot.

Dump the tomato paste and cream cheese on top.

Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 4 minutes. When time is up let pot sit for 5 minutes and then move valve to venting. Remove the lid.

Stir well. Serve and enjoy. Top with a bit of parmesan cheese and basil, if desired.

Notes/Tips

• Serve with a green salad and garlic bread.
• 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.
• Other recipes you can make with cream cheese are Mississippi Sin Casserole and Henny Penny 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.

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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*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.