Make this super easy pasta puttanesca with a few canned ingredients in the Instant Pot for a quick and delicious dinner option.
Pantry Pasta Puttanesca
Today we’ve got another super easy recipe where you can keep most of the ingredients on hand in your pantry. Pasta is another dish that I know is an easy option for when I don’t know what I want to eat, or I don’t want to really cook. Pasta puttanesca is a tomato-based pasta dish that’s made with black olives and capers. Plus, it’s easy to bring up the heat with red pepper flakes.
I like to keep olives and capers on hand in my pantry since they are shelf-stable and really elevate a standard red sauce. I also like to keep whole peeled tomatoes on hand also to make my own pasta sauce. However, you could definitely make this with a jar of premade pasta sauce and start with some more base flavors. Just remember that dish gets salty from the ingredients! So if you use jarred sauce too, remember to taste before you add more salt that the recipe calls for because it may already have enough from the premade sauce.
Instant Pot Pasta
Making pasta in the pressure cooker is cool because the high pressure means that you need less liquid. So, you can make this all in one pot without having to wait for water to boil to cook the pasta! For this recipe like many, I used Banza chickpea pasta. I love this brand because it tastes good for a gluten free pasta. It’s made form chickpeas, so it’s higher in protein than you average pasta. Adding protein to your meals can help you feel full longer, so it bulks up the pasta dish a bit.
I also love the chickpea pasta because it seems sturdier than some other gluten free pastas that are made form rice. I hate when your pasta starts to fall apart, but that doesn’t happen with the Banza pasta. So, it can handle cooking in the pressure cooker without falling apart.
Basic Recipe and Substitutions
I like to add aromatics like onion and garlic to basically every meal I make because they provide a lot of flavor, and they really take a simple dish up a notch! However, if you don’t have fresh vegetables on hand, this could be a good time to use a jarred pasta sauce that already has some of these ingredients. You could also use onion and garlic powder which will give some similar flavors.
When I made this, I had some mushrooms on hand, so I quartered them and added them to bulk up the dish since I love mushrooms. You could add in any of your favorite veggies you have on hand for more fiber and flavor.
Black olives and capers are what make the dish pasta puttanesca. They really give this vegetarian dish so much flavor. Capers are small sea plants that are brined, and people have strong feelings about them. If you’ve never tired them before, I don’t think they have a sea/fish taste (that’s a hard pass for me). Mostly they are briny kind of like a pickle, and are little salt bombs in your dish.
You can increase the heat of this dish by using a spicy jar of pasta sauce instead of peeled tomatoes as the base, or you can add red pepper flakes to your taste preferences. I love to top this off with fresh basil if you have it. I also love this slightly dried basil that tastes fresh, but it will last a couple weeks in the fridge. Also you can never go wrong with freshly ground black pepper and some parmesan cheese if that’s your thing! If you are looking for basic Instant Pot dinner, check out how to make mushroom risotto in 20 minutes.
Pantry Pasta Puttenesca
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 8 oz. mushrooms sliced or quartered
- 8 oz. pasta
- ½ cup capers with brine
- ½ cup sliced black olives
- 28 oz. can peeled or diced tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped basil optional
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Peel and mince the garlic. Peel the onion and cut into a medium dice. Drain the black olives from the can.
- Remove the stems from the mushrooms and cut the caps into quarters.
- In a pressure cooker, add all the ingredients and set the pressure cooker to high for 7 minutes.
- When finished cooking release the pressure and serve!
- To cook on the stove, cook pasta according to box instructions.
- To a medium sauce pan, add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the flavors have combined. Pour over the pasta and serve!