This Instant Pot Sausage and Tomato Pasta would probably serve two hungry people or four with a normal appetite. In my child’s case, it’s two, the girl eats a lot. If you decide to double it, make sure you double everything as the pasta expands and needs the liquid.
1teaspoonExtra virgin olive oil or oil of your choice
5Heck Chicken Italia sausagesor whatever sausages you want. These heck sausages are very thin, like chipolatas, if you are using thicker sausages, make sure you fry them really well otherwise they may not be quite cooked in the short time it takes to cook the pasta
100gonion
1small carrotfinely chopped
2clovesgarlicpeeled and finely chopped
2tablespoonred wine
1teaspoonWorcestershire sauce
400gtinned chopped tomatoesuse fresh if you have fresh of course, or you could use tomato sauce if you have some left over
150gfusilliany fusilli will do and it will also work with penne. Don't use anything too expensive, I tend to get the supermarket-own brands
300mlwater
1teaspoonvegetable stock paste or powderI added a teaspoon of my homemade stock paste. If you are using a cube I’d cut it in half for this amount of pasta.
1teaspoondry parsleyI would have added mixed herbs but I’m out of the usual mix I make
Instructions
Method
Add the oil and press Saute, brown sausages for a few minutes, add a dash of red wine and deglaze scraping any burnt bits off with a wooden spoon.
Add the onion, carrot and garlic. Keep sautéing for a couple of minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, give it a couple more minutes and deglaze with another dash of red wine (deglazing means scraping the bottom of the pressure cooker with some liquid by scraping it with a wooden spoon).
Cancel Sauté and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir. Lock lid in. Steam release set Sealing. Pressure cook 5 minutes, high pressure. At the end of the cooking time do a 3 minute natural release followed by a quick release. If you want it more al dente do a 2 minute quick release.
Notes
Note for Thermomix usersYou can chop the onion, carrot and garlic together for 5 seconds, speed 5.TipIf you use a different pasta shape just remember that the key is in halving the cooking time and not waiting too long to do a quick release, otherwise it may be overcooked, if it’s undercooked, pop the lid back on and let it rest for a little whileTerminology– Quick release means venting the steam as soon as the pressure cooking process finishes, i.e. moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting. This video shows you how to do it.– Natural release means letting the float valve pop back down of its own accord, so basically you don’t need to do anything at the end and can keep your feet up. No need to cancel the automatic Keep Warm function. If it takes over 15 minutes, you’re ok to release the rest of the steam (by turning the steam release handle to Venting) that may be left in order to unlock and open the lid.