Main dish

Instant Pot Tomato Chorizo Pasta recipe

Name: Instant Pot Tomato Chorizo Pasta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 3
Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil; 2 red onions, sliced; 1 red pepper, diced; 3 cloves of garlic, chopped; 125g chorizo, diced (more if you like); 75g olives (green, black or both. Optionally sliced in half); tin of chopped tomatoes (400g); 250g dried pasta (I use wholewheat); salt and pepper; extra virgin olive oil, to finish; small handful of fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

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Pasta with sweet onions, earthy chorizo and salty olives, made in an Instant Pot. Use white or wholemeal pasta.

Prep10m
Stand5m
Cook15m
Total30m

instant-pot pasta

Instant Pot chorizo pasta with tomato, olives and onions

Pasta is one of my favourite things to cook in the Instant Pot. I don’t think it’s much quicker than cooking it on a hob but it feels easier and there’s only one pot to clean up at the end.

I’ve worked out a pasta/tomato/water ratio thanks to Manali from Cook With Manali. Her Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta is wonderful and after making it I realised that the recipe could be adapted in all kinds of ways (tomato/tuna, tomato/cheese, tomato/chorizo, etc). I’ve tweaked Manali’s quantities to suit my mostly metric brain and settled on:

250g pasta
1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
275ml of water

After 5 minutes of pressure cooking, the pasta ends up well coated (but not swimming) in sauce.

I’ve been making tomato chorizo pasta for over a decade, although only recently in an Instant Pot. The combination of onions, olives and chorizo never gets old. If I can get hold of a raw chorizo sausage I’ll use that but any kind will do. I cut it up small and use it sparingly so feel free to use more if you’re a fan. As with Tuna, Cavolo Nero and Tomato Pasta this sauce works well with wholewheat pasta.

Notes

I generally get two dinner portions and two lunch portions out of this recipe.

Any shape of pasta will work but I love casarecce as it withstands vigorous stirring without breaking up.

My current favourite chorizo is Unearthed Spanish Smoked Cooking Chorizo from Ocado.

Recipe credit

Cook with Manali's Instant Pot Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta. This is a different recipe but Manali provided the ratio of ingredients for the Instant Pot.

Recipe

Instant Pot Tomato Chorizo Pasta

Prep10m
Stand5m
Cook15m
Total30m

Serves: 3

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, sliced
1 red pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
125g chorizo, diced (more if you like)
75g olives (green, black or both. Optionally sliced in half)
tin of chopped tomatoes (400g)
250g dried pasta (I use wholewheat)
salt and pepper
extra virgin olive oil, to finish
small handful of fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the Instant Pot’s inner pot and select Sauté for 10 minutes on level 3.
Add 2 sliced red onions, 1 diced red pepper and 3 chopped cloves of garlic to the pot. Sauté for 5 minutes then add 125g of diced chorizo sausage, stirring occasionally.
Once the sauté function finishes, add 75g of olives, 400g of chopped tomatoes and 275ml of water to the Instant Pot. Stir well, making sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot then add 250g of pasta, pushing most of it under the sauce but not to the bottom of the pot (it doesn’t matter if some of the pasta isn’t covered by the sauce).
Select Pressure Cook, High for 5 minutes (or 4 minutes if using white pasta). My Instant Pot takes about 7 minutes to come up to pressure before it starts to cook.
Once the Instant Pot has finished pressure cooking, Quick Release the pressure, remove the lid and stir gently to avoid breaking up the pasta. Taste and season with salt and pepper then leave the pasta to stand for 5 minutes to absorb any excess liquid (there shouldn’t be much).
Divide into bowls, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and optionally top with some chopped parsley.