Instant Pot Pasta with Eggplant, Basil, and Goat Cheese

One-pot pasta sounds like a dream come true…until you make it.

You have to sit over the pot, constantly stirring to make sure the noodles don’t burn. And chances are, you’ll need to add water throughout the process to get the noodles to cook. By the end, the dish takes more time than a multi-pot recipe.

I gave up on one-pot pasta after a few failures, but the promise of speedy noodles still lingered in my brain. That’s when I turned to the Instant Pot.

I knew the tool cooked risotto perfectly, so I thought, “why not try pasta?” I’m glad I did. Instant Pot pasta takes 10 minutes, and it only requires a single pot.

This recipe is a riff on pasta alla norma. The eggplant roasts while the pasta cooks, so you should be able to get dinner on the table in about 30 minutes. If you have another cooked veggie on hand, toss it in the pasta to save even more time.

Pasta alla norma is norma-lly (couldn’t resist) served with ricotta salata, but I had goat cheese on the brain. If you’re vegan, the cashew-tofu “ricotta” in this lasagna recipe would also be a delicious substitute.

To develop this recipe, I took inspiration from Cookie and Kate’s pasta alla norma recipe.

Instant Pot Pasta with Eggplant, Basil, and Goat Cheese

Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs eggplant, chopped in large cubes

• 8 oz rigatoni or penne pasta

• 1 cup marinara sauce

• 1.5 cup veggie stock

• 2 tsp olive oil (plus more for tossing with eggplant)

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• ½ red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

• ½ cup chopped fresh basil (plus a handful for garnishing)

• 3 tbsp goat cheese (plus more for garnishing; see note for vegan subsitute)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 F. Place the eggplant on a lined baking sheet, and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Once the oven is preheated, roast the eggplant for 25 to 30 minutes
• Add veggie stock, olive oil, marinara, oregano, and red pepper flakes to the Instant Pot. Give it a stir, add the pasta and stir again. The pasta should be just under the level of the water.
• Set the Instant Pot to High Pressure for 7 minutes if using rigatoni (or 5 minutes if using penne).
• As soon as the 7 (or 5) minutes is up, do a quick release and turn off the Instant Pot.
• Wait two minutes. Add basil and goat cheese and stir in. Add roasted eggplant, and stir in.
• Serve in bowls, and top with more basil and goat cheese

Notes

• To make this recipe vegan, consider using the cashew-tofu ricotta in this recipe to replace the goat cheese.