Make creamy, delicious Instant Pot Butternut Squash Pasta in just 30 minutes! A delicious one-pot squash pasta recipe that is super creamy and delicious.
(This recipe was originally published in September 2018 and has been updated with new instructions and tips, based on reader feedback)
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Come Autumn and cue the comfort food! Autumn/Fall is the time when I can revel in making some of my favorite comfort foods, such as my all-time favorites - Instant Pot Chicken Curry, Chickpea Coconut Curry, Lentil Soup, Butter Chicken, and all my favorite stews and curries.
Autumn is squash season, and I love making the most of the produce this time of year. From Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake to my Squash Curry, this time of year is perfect for making use of your gorgeous squash and pumpkins stash.
But let's talk a bit about this Instant Pot butternut squash pasta recipe - I have made this recipe with a few tweaks a few times, and it has become a firm favorite for Fall/Autumn. I love how the butternut squash forms the bulk of the sauce - the flavor of the squash is super delicious, with the addition of herbs (I like using sage for this recipe), spices such as nutmeg, paprika, and pepper. For a richer sauce, you can add cheese and cream (use non-dairy if you are vegan).
Cooking a one-pot pasta meal is something that I use my IP for extensively, and honestly, I can’t remember the last time I made pasta on the stove-top. Once you go make pasta in the Instant Pot, you don’t go back to stovetop pasta! Have you seen my other recipes for Instant Pot Pasta, and Instant Pot Sausage Pasta?
Why This Recipe Works
- One-pot recipe made in 30 minutes!
- Creamy butternut squash sauce made with very little cream and cheese
- The perfect pasta dish for Autumn!
Recipe Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need:
- Butternut squash - peeled and cubed
- Butter or olive oil (for a vegan version)
- Onions - White or yellow
- Garlic cloves - Finely chopped or minced
- Sage leaves - Fresh sage, finely chopped
- Chicken or vegetable stock
- Penna pasta
- Seasonings - White pepper powder, Nutmeg, Paprika Powder
- Grated Parmesan
- Cream or Milk to thicken the butternut squash sauce
Step By Step Instructions
- Turn the IP to 'Saute' mode in the 'More' setting.
- Add the butter, let it heat and add the chopped onions.
- Add the garlic and saute along with the onions.
- Add the sage or assorted dried herbs and sauté for a couple of minutes until the herbs become aromatic.
- Add 4 cups of stock (chicken or vegetable stock)
- Add the cubed butternut squash and stir to combine it with the rest of the ingredients.
Pressure Cook for 4 minutes, followed by a Quick Release of pressure.
- Open the lid of the Instant Pot, and break up the cooked squash using a spatula.
- Add 1 Ib penne pasta
- Ensure that the pasta is submerged under the liquid.
- Pressure Cook again for 5 minutes.
- Let the pressure release naturally. Open the lid of the Instant Pot and add 1/3 cup milk (or cream, or dairy-free vegan substitute, as per your preference). Parmesan cheese can be added as well. Mix well and serve warm.
Your butternut squash pasta is now ready to be served!
Expert Tips
Keep pasta submerged in the Instant Pot
Make sure your pasta is submerged in the liquid before you seal the lid of the Instant Pot. A few times, I have made pasta that isn’t entirely covered with water, and the bits that stick out remain under-cooked. Lesson learned!
Add cream or Parmesan for extra richness
For this butternut squash pasta, I rely almost entirely on the squash to lend the sauce its creaminess but feel free to add some cream and some Parmesan cheese right at the end. Stir it well, and sprinkle extra cheese on top before serving. This gives it just the right amount of creamy-cheesy goodness!
Make it Vegan
Make this recipe vegan by swapping the milk with a vegan substitute for milk, and a non-dairy cheese alternative. The butternut squash sauce needs very little cream/ milk or cheese and you can enjoy it with your choice of non-dairy alternatives!
FAQs
This recipe calls for 4 cups of liquid for 1 lb (16 oz or 450 grams) dried pasta. You can increase the amount of liquid if you prefer your sauce to be runnier than dry. I have made this recipe a few times - and have used both chicken stock and vegetable stock to cook the pasta - you can substitute stock with water as well.
A rule of thumb to follow when cooking pasta is to halve the time mentioned on the box, and then reduce that by 1 for al-dente pasta ( if you like your pasta firm and just-done). I like my pasta a little more than al-dente, and so I cook it for half the cooking time.
For example, I made this recipe using penne (Barilla brand) which called for 11 minutes of cooking time. That makes it 4.5 minutes going by the rule of thumb. But since I like it well-done, I cooked it for 5 minutes. I let the pressure release naturally for a maximum of 5 minutes. This way, the IP cooks pasta perfectly every single time!
For a vegan version of this recipe, you can replace butter with olive oil, add vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and skip the parmesan. Add around 1/3 cup almond milk (or any dairy-free milk) at the end, instead of regular milk or cream.
More Instant Pot recipes
Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala
If you liked this recipe, do comment below and rate the recipe! If you make this recipe, please post a pic on INSTAGRAM -tagging @carameltintedlife and follow along on FACEBOOK and PINTEREST
Instant Pot Butternut Squash Pasta
Ingredients
- 18 ounces (512 grams) butternut squash peeled and cubed
- 2 tablespoons butter Can be replaced with olive oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 5-6 sage leaves roughly chopped (can be replaced with assorted dried herbs)
- 4 cups stock (use chicken or vegetable stock)
- 1 Ib (450 grams) penne pasta (I used Barilla brand)
- 1 teaspoon white pepper powder
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- ½ cup grated parmesan (optional)
- ⅓ cup milk (can be replaced with almond milk)
Instructions
- Turn the IP to 'Saute' mode in the 'More' setting.
- Add the butter, followed by the onions, garlic and sage (or assorted herbs). Sauté for a couple of minutes until the sage releases its aroma and the onions turn translucent.
- Add the cubed butternut squash and stir to combine it with the rest of the ingredients.
- Add the chicken (or vegetable) stock and mix.
- Put on the lid of the Instant Pot and turn the vent to ‘Sealing’ position, and switch to 'Manual' mode (Pressure Cook mode), in 'High' Pressure setting. Set the cooking time for 4 minutes.
- Once the IP beeps, do a quick release, i.e. turn the vent from sealing to venting position to release the steam quickly. Once all the steam has released, the pressure valve comes down and the IP lid is safe to open.
- Open the lid and using a spatula, break down the cooked squash to a puree-like consistency.
- Now add the penne. Ensure that the penne is submerged under the liquid in order to let the pasta cook evenly.
- Put on the lid of the IP, and with the vent in 'sealing' position, in 'Manual' mode, in 'High' Pressure setting, set the time for 5 minutes. Let the IP release steam naturally (Natural Pressure Release). Once the valve comes down, the IP lid is safe to open.
- Open the lid and add the white pepper powder, nutmeg and paprika powder, followed by the parmesan cheese.
- Add the milk and give it a good stir.
- Serve warm.
Video
Notes
- For firmer, al dente pasta, reduce the cooking time from 5 to 4 minutes.
- You can increase the quantity of butternut squash and water or stock if you want more sauce in your pasta
- Make sure your pasta is submerged in the liquid before you seal the lid of the Instant Pot
- For a vegan option, use non-dairy cheese and cream substitutes
Nutrition
Tasty! Ended up tossing in half a diced tomato that was languishing in the fridge with the pasta, and then some shredded kale at the end.
BUT! Definitely needed salt, and a little chili flake sprinkle helped too.
Also! Those nutrition facts seem way way waaaaay off. One pound of Braille pasta is 1600 calories, split six ways is 267, and that doesn’t account for anything other ingredients.
This was great! I made it using a Ninja Foodi, and followed with Broil mode to add a crunchy top layer. Added parm and peppers with each serving. Delicious!
thank you for your feedback! glad to know you liked it
Excellent! Family loved it!
Thank you for letting me know!
This looks good and perfect for the winter season! Will be trying it soon!
I LOVE trying out new recipes in my Instant Pot, and this looks so delicious, quick and easy! My family would love it
This was a huge hit in our house!! Loved how easy it was using the IP.
I had no idea you could make pasta in an instapot. I will be giving this recipe a try for sure!
I love how easy this is. I keep going back and forth on whether I should get an instant pot or not. This makes me want one ASAP
Unfortunately, I experienced the same burn notice in my Ultra pot that Amanda did. I used an extra 1/4 cup water when adding the pasta to try to avoid this happening, but it didn't help. As not all of the pasta had cooked completely, after scrubbing the burned portion of the pasta out of the pot, I added the non-burned portion of the pasta back to the pot along with 1 3/4 cups of water, hoping that would be enough to keep it from burning again while I completed the cooking process. Unfortunately, I got the burn notice again. Not sure what the difference is between the IP Duo and the Ultra, but this recipe doesn't appear to work satisfactorily in the Ultra.
Hi Tom, thank you for your feedback, apologies for responding to your comment late. I have reworked the recipe and updated the instructions. With 4 cups of liquid for 16 ounces of pasta, this recipe should now work fine for all models of the IP. I hope you get to try it out and let me know!
This was DELICIOUS, but the second step with the dry pasta triggered a burn notice in my Instant Pot Ultra, which was frustrating. I finished it in the pot as it continued to try to come to pressure (but obviously wasn't going to once I removed the lid), scraping and adding more water until the pasta was done enough to eat.
It's good enough that I might try to just do a stovetop version next time. Or, if I wanted to do the sauce in the pot and just toss in the pasta cooked separately, do you think I would need to reduce the liquid slightly to compensate for the liquid the pasta is supposed to absorb when cooked under pressure per the recipe?
Thanks!
thank you so much Amanda, I'm glad you let me know your feedback. It appears that the Burn notice can be triggered differently in newer models, which are more sensitive to burnt residue. I used my IP Duo model for this recipe, and it is possible that the recipe might need more liquid in the the Ultra model. I agree with you on reducing the water to make the sauce, if you want to cook pasta separately on the stove top. But you might want to consider adding a third cup more of stock or water and deglazing the pot, perhaps that might help avoid the burn notice. Hope this helped!
I used my IP Duo to cook this recipe and I got the burn message twice. Very disappointed. We ended up having over cooked pasta with a burned pot to clean afterwards!
I'm sorry to hear that! I have made changes to the recipe over time - as the burn error was triggered on newer version of the IP. Did you follow the recipe and use 4 cups of stock for 1 lb pasta? Let me know. Thank you.
I got the burn message when doing this recipe.... So dissapointing!
What is the weight of the squash in this recipe? Mine grow very large. Thank you!
I have used approximately 1.6 pounds of cubed squash in this recipe. You could take a look at the video to see how much that would look like. Hope this helps!
Looks amazing. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thank you, Anil! Glad you liked it
This was great! I would say it definitely did not need slow pressure release for the pasta. It ended up pretty mushy. But flavors were great!
Thank you for your feedback Alex!
Oooooh I love the combo of butternut squash and sage in this! And I've been looking for more Instant pot recipes since I just started using mine, so this came at the perfect time.
Glad you liked it!
I am always looking for new ways to use my Instant Pot and I just love butternut squash - will have to give this a try, looks delish!
thank you so much! I'm so glad you liked it
Ive never made pasta in my Instant pot, sounds great though!!! looks so creamy!
Its a good dish to get started with for pasta!
I love butternut squash! This is such a delicious meal to welcome in fall!
thank you!