Instant Pot Pasta with Green Olives
My other Instant Pot pasta recipes involve meat or small pasta, so I thought I’d write up this simpler one for just making a light meal or side of pasta. Choose a short pasta like penne so you’re not tempted to break it to fit it in the Instant Pot. Check out the variants if you don’t like green olives.
The Instant Pot approach to pasta is well-known; for the record, I started with Inquiring Chef’s formula this time. To double the pasta, double the water.
Serves 1–2.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 8 oz. dried pasta
- 2 c. water
- dash dried basil
- dash oregano
- dash marjoram
- dash red pepper flakes (optional)
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- a handful of chopped green olives
Directions
- Turn on sauté and heat the oil.
- Add the garlic for one minute.
- Turn off sauté and add the remaining ingredients.
- Close vent and lid.
- Pressure cook on high for half the (lowest) cooking time listed on the pasta box, rounded down, minus two minutes.
- Turn off keep warm.
- Turn off keep warm.
- Turn off keep warm.
- Release pressure after 5 minutes and stir well.
- Verify that keep warm is off, cover the pot, and wait 5 more minutes.
- Open and serve.
Optionally top with cheese.
Variants
You can sauté mushrooms, green pepper, or other veggies that can take your pasta’s cooking time. If they’re borderline, you can skip sautéing them.
If you don’t want to do the math, there’s a table of cooking times at the Inquiring Chef link above.
