Ninja Foodi Mostaccioli

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4.57 from 103 votes

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: mostaccioli, pasta, dinner

Servings:

Calories: 543kcal

Ingredients

1 Teaspoon olive oil
½ Cup diced onions
1 Pound lean ground beef
For a less meaty and more cheese and noodle option- only use ½ pound of ground beef
You can substitute the ground beef with ground turkey ground chicken or Italian sausage
1 Tablespoon garlic- minced
1 Teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
½ Teaspoon red pepper flakes
If you prefer you can omit the red pepper flakes. It gives a nice little kick to the dish though!
2 Cans beef broth- 29 ounces total
1 Cup water
1 24 ounce jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 Pound dried mostaccioli noodles also called penne pasta
2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese

Instructions

Turn Ninja Foodi on Saute- Hi
Add Olive Oil
Add onions, ground beef and garlic. Continue to sauté until beef is evenly browned. If you use lean ground beef, you do NOT need to drain the grease from the pot. If you use a high fat content ground beef you will need to drain the grease. You can do so by either using a ladle to scoop the grease out or you can CAREFULLY remove the inner pot and pour the grease out. I HIGHLY recommend using a low fat ground beef to avoid this step all together.
Turn off the Ninja Foodi. You no longer need to sauté anything in the pot.
Add sugar, Italian seasoning an red pepper flakes
Pour in pasta sauce
Pour 1 cup of water into pasta sauce jar- shake- pour water mixture into Ninja Foodi pot. This will help you get all of the sauce goodness out of the jar! No waste!
Pour 2 cans of beef broth into Ninja Foodi pot.
Stir beef and liquid until well combined
Pour in mostaccioli pasta
DO NOT STIR! If you stir, you are likely to get a burn or error message.
Make sure that all pasta is covered by liquid (or as much as possible). I just pushed down on the noodles with a spatula until they were covered with liquid.
Close the pressure cooker lid, turn Ninja Foodi back on and cook on high for 3 minutes.
Once the timer goes off, natural release pressure for 3 minutes. Quick release remaining pressure. Turn off Ninja Foodi.
Open the pressure cooker lid and stir pasta together. Be sure to stir well and ensure no pasta is clumped together.
Add in 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and stir.
Sprinkle remaining 1 cup of mozzarella cheese on top.
Using the broiler lid, close lid and broil on high for 5 minutes or just until cheese is melted and golden brown.

Notes

Tips for this recipe:

1. It’s tempting to want to stir this recipe before starting to cook under pressure. Don’t do it! Resist the temptation! If you stir this recipe after you have added the pasta, you will end up with a burn or error message.

2. Buy lean ground beef when cooking under pressure in the Ninja Foodi. If you buy a higher fat content, you will need to drain the grease if you don’t want to end up with a greasy finished product. That’s a lot of extra work in my book, so I buy 93% lean ground beef and skip the grease draining step. Saves time and is much easier.

3. To make this a quick meal, use jarred sauce and frozen onions. If you have more time, you can make the sauce from scratch and use fresh onions. But, if you are looking for a quick weeknight meal, jarred sauce and frozen onions work great!

Nutrition