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Instant Pot Ground Turkey Pasta

The pasta in Instant Pot Ground Turkey Pasta is cheesy and creamy, and the ground turkey is tasty. This creamy pasta with ground turkey will make your weeknight meals quick and delicious. People who are finicky about their food love it!

Take a look at our many simple Instant Pot recipes!

Pasta with ground turkey and cream

You probably already have everything you need to make ground turkey pasta with tomato sauce in the instant pot. This one-pot spaghetti recipe is just as good as what you’d receive at a restaurant, and everyone who eats it loves it!

You may build your own creamy tomato sauce for a healthy ground turkey pasta or penne pasta meal by changing how much cheese and liquid dairy you use.

Instant Pot Pasta with Ground Turkey

Five minutes to get ready
20 minutes to cook
Total Time: 25 minutes
Number of servings: people
Calories: 619 kcal

Things You Need and Things You Can Use

You can find the real measurements of the ingredients at the bottom of the post. The list below is just for your information.

I used salad shells to hold the uncooked spaghetti. If you choose, you can use farfalle, penne, fusilli, or rotini instead of the salad shells.
The ground turkey I used was 97% lean.
Garlic and yellow onion are the aromatics. Don’t use an onion that is red. It will make the food taste quite robust.
You can use any color bell pepper, such red, orange, or yellow. I used an orange bell pepper because it was the only one I had.
If you don’t have tomato sauce, you can use tomato passata.
The recipe has a little spice from sweet paprika, oregano, thyme, ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Don’t use the red pepper flakes if you can’t handle heat.
Liquid Dairy: To make a tomato-based sauce that is thicker and creamier, use whole milk and heavy whipping cream. For a healthier option, use half & half and 1% or fat-free milk.
Cheese: sharp cheddar and grated mozzarella. Add a lot of cheese to the ground turkey pasta if you want it to be the cheesiest.
You may whisk Better than Bouillon chicken into warm water to make a quick homemade chicken stock. You don’t have to go to the supermarket to get chicken stock. BTB is really awesome!
Light or very light olive oil is useful for cooking. But you may use any oil that isn’t too strong, like avocado oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil.
Salt: Add salt to taste. This recipe for ground turkey spaghetti in an instant pot tastes great since salt brings out the flavor.

What you need

12 ounces of uncooked pasta shells I used spaghetti shells to make a salad. There are also penne, rotini, and farfalle pasta. Please weigh the spaghetti.
1 pound of ground turkey (I used ground turkey that was 97% lean.)
1 cup of chopped yellow onion (approximately a cup)
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
Cut approximately one cup of yellow bell pepper into small strips. You can also use bell peppers that are red or orange.
425 grams (15 ounces) of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil (use light or extra light olive oil).
Salt to taste (or use as much as you like)

Seasonings

1.5 teaspoons of sweet paprika should be used. Don’t use paprika that has been smoked.
1 tsp of thyme
1 tsp of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (for some spice) and 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper. If you can’t take the heat, don’t read this.

Wet

3 warm cups of water
Better Than Bouillon, 2 teaspoons, mixed into the 3 cups of hot water above to make fast chicken stock at home

Milk

¾ cup of heavy whipping cream and 1 cup of whole milk (for a lighter version, use 1% or fat-free milk).
1 cup of cheddar cheese (I used sharp cheddar.)
One cup of mozzarella cheese

Used tools

Instant Pot DUO 6 quart

How to Do It

1. Lightly brown the ground turkey.

Set the instant pot to SAUTE mode and bring the heat down to low. Press the sauté button a few times to vary the heat settings on SAUTE mode. Add oil, and when it gets hot enough, carefully add the chopped onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Add salt after 30 seconds of sautéing. Sauté for one more minute.

Now, add the ground turkey and use your spatula to break it up into large chunks. Cook the ground turkey in a pan until it starts to brown. Cut the meat into smaller pieces while you keep cooking it. You need to cook the ground turkey well until all the extra moisture is gone. That’s when the meat will go a little brown. Add all the spices from the “SEASONINGS” part of the ingredients list and sauté the ground turkey for one more minute. This will truly make the one-pot ground turkey spaghetti recipe taste better. Stop the Sauté mode.

2. Take the glazing off the pot

Add the chicken stock and use your spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the pot very well to get rid of the glaze. This will help get rid of any food that is stuck and stop the burn error. Don’t hurry through this step!

3. Put the tomato sauce and spaghetti on top of each other.

Put the uncooked pasta in the instant pot now and use your spatula to spread it out so that it is in a single layer. Don’t mix or stir it. Use your spatula to push down on the spaghetti a little bit on each side.

Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the pasta with your spatula. Don’t mix or stir.

4. Cook under stress

Close the cover on the instant pot, seal the valve, and turn the heat up to HIGH for four minutes. The instant pot will beep when the cooking cycle is done. To let off some steam immediately away, move the valve from the sealing to the venting position. When the floating pin on top drops, slowly open the lid of the instant pot. Mix everything in the instant pot very well.

5. Use ground turkey and cream to make spaghetti.

Turn on the SAUTE mode and set the heat to low. Add the milk and heavy whipping cream, and mix everything together carefully. Now, add around half a cup of cheddar cheese and half a cup of mozzarella cheese. Mix everything together thoroughly until the cheese melts and blends in well to form a creamy cheese sauce.

Turn off the instant pot. Now, put the rest of the ½ cup of mozzarella and cheddar cheese on top of the ground turkey pasta in the one pot. Close the lid of the instant pot. Let it sit for five minutes, or until the cheese melts. The leftover heat will help the cheese melt and form a cheesy top layer.

Remove the lid and serve the pasta with cheesy ground turkey. Have a good time!

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Tips for doing well

You may make the sauce for this Instant Pot Tortellini Pasta thinner by adding more milk, cream, or stock if you enjoy saucy pastas. You can make the sauce thicker or thinner to fit your taste. Today’s recipe calls for a lot of sauce.
Adding vegetables: If you want additional vegetables in your pasta dishes, this simple ground turkey pasta recipe lets you add green peas, sliced mushrooms, broccoli, baby spinach, or cherry tomatoes.
For the best feel: Serve the one-pot ground turkey spaghetti immediately away for the best texture. When pasta is cooked, it takes in a lot of liquid. The longer it sits in the creamy tomato sauce, the softer it will grow as it takes in more of the sauce.
Use stock and your spatula to deglaze the pot very well to avoid the BURN error. This will assist you get rid of any food that is stuck and stop the burn error. Take your time with this step! Don’t combine or stir the ingredients in the pot before you cook them under pressure, either. Layering the spaghetti and sauce is the best approach to get the best results.
I used salad shells to make the best pasta. You can also use rotini, farfalle, or penne pasta.
Red pepper flakes: These will add some extra spice to the ground turkey pasta dish that you make in one pot. Take off the red pepper flakes if you can’t take heat or are preparing for kids.
Can I use half and half? Half and half can be used in place of heavy whipping cream. Use the same amount.
Can you use 1% or fat-free milk? To make the recipe less strong, you can use 1% or fat-free milk instead of whole milk.
Is it okay to use cheese that comes in a package? You can grate cheese from a block or use pre-packaged grated cheese.
You can always change the texture of saucy pasta by adding more liquid. Add more milk or stock at the end if you like your pasta saucy.

How to store and use leftovers

If you put this one-pot ground turkey pasta in airtight containers, it will stay well in the fridge for three to four days. The noodles will absorb up the sauce. To reheat, please follow these steps.

Freezer:

You may store the instant pot ground turkey pasta in the freezer for up to two months. Put the spaghetti in heavy-duty containers that are the correct size for each dish and can go in the freezer. In this case, you can take out each serving, heat it up, and serve it. Here are the steps to reheat.

How to warm up

Refrigerator: Putting pasta in the fridge makes it soak up a lot of the sauce. You need to add some water, stock, or a few drops of milk to the ground turkey spaghetti before you cook it up again. Put the spaghetti in the microwave and heat it up until it’s warm or hot. After swirling gently with a spoon, serve.

Freezer: To defrost frozen pasta, put it in the fridge overnight. Then, repeat the steps above to heat it up. If you freeze or chill pasta, it will be soft.

Did you make this spaghetti with cheese and ground turkey? Please let me know in the comments below!