Instant Pot Pasta con Ceci. Pasta with homemade chickpeas, comfort food from the south of Italy

It’s chili time! The super bowl means chili for a crowd. For my family’s Super Bowl party, I make two chilis; a real-deal Texas Red chili, and a wimpy chili. (What can I say – I’m from Ohio. Around here, “chili” means ground meat and beans.) Not that I’m against Wimpy Chili – I grew up on it, and I’m a big fan. This is the quickest way I can make it: Instant Pot Quick Turkey Chili with Canned Beans. I have a standard chili technique, so this recipe will look familiar to long-time readers. The mix of spices is the key – I like the hint of Mexican Mole that coriander, cinnamon and cocoa powder bring to the turkey chili. Now, I say “canned beans” here, but I know you have an Instant Pot. (If not, I’m impressed you’re still reading!) To take this recipe from great to fantastic, pressure cook your own beans. Homemade beans are easy with an Instant Pot (or other pressure cooker), and so much better than canned. Check out …

Marcella Hazan’s three-ingredient tomato sauce is famous, and rightfully so. Butter, onion, and canned whole tomatoes make a simple, yet fantastic sauce. Let’s try it in a pressure cooker with Instant Pot Marcella Hazan Tomato Sauce. The only tricky part of this recipe was getting the timing down. 30 minutes under pressure is the Goldilocks zone: a balance of breaking down the tomatoes into a sauce without overcooking and losing the bright, tomato flavor. Marcella recommends Italian San Marzano DOP tomatoes, which are fantastic…and expensive. I get good results with American brands of canned plum tomatoes, which are less than half the price of San Marzano tomatoes. (I usually go with American canned tomatoes.) The big difference between Italian and American canned tomatoes was the amount of salt in the can. Italian tomatoes don’t have salt; they need some, or the sauce comes out tasting a little flat. Looking for a simple tomato sauce that replaces hours of simmering with 30 minutes of pressure? Try this one out. Thanks, Marcella! What do you think? Questions? …

Instant Pot Minestrone. A warming bean, pasta, and vegetable soup, made with quick-soaked dried beans.

Instant Pot Steak Chili. Chili with bite-sized cubes of chuck, ready in about an hour thanks to pressure cooking.

Carnitas are Mexican pork candy. Cubes of pork shoulder, simmered until tender, and then fried in their own rendered pork fat. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, I’ve tried Instant Pot Carnitas many times, but the results were not what I wanted…until now. The problem was, I kept trying to make this a one-pot meal, and fry the pork cubes in the Instant Pot by simmering off the liquid. There were two problems. First, the pork would always burn on the bottom of the pot, no matter how carefully I watched it. Second, pressure cooker pots (like the Instant Pot) are not that wide – at best, I could fit 2 pounds of pork in a single layer on the bottom. That’s not enough to satisfy my hungry crowd of kids. My breakthrough was giving up on the authentic, one-pot approach. Mexican kitchens cook carnitas in wide, shallow pots, so there’s plenty of room to fry the pork. Me? I brought out my frypan, and use vegetable oil or lard instead of the …

Thanks to a tip from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, I can make Instant Pot split pea soup as thick as any fog.1 That tip? Make sure to quick release the pressure. The pressure release starts a vigorous boil inside the pot, boiling, roughing up the peas and releasing their starch into the soup. My pea soups used to be a little watery; now I can practically stand a spoon in them. (Not really, but you know what I mean.) Pork and peas are a perfect pair, so I add pork in two different ways. A smoked pork hock gives up its flavor to the peas, and cubed ham adds meaty bites to the soup. I also sauté my vegetables – a mix of onion, celery, carrot, and garlic – to add a sweet undertone to the bowl. Don’t skip the sauté step – the soup will be bland without it. What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below. Related Posts Pressure Cooker Senate Bean SoupPressure Cooker Bean Mix SoupPressure Cooker …

Instant Pot Flank Steak Tacos – a quick, beefy taco from the Instant Pot or other pressure cooker.

Instant Pot Quick Lentil Curry. Comforting lentils with curry powder from my Instant Pot (or other pressure cooker).

Pressure Cooker Quick Pork Tacos – taco night is ready in no time with shredded pork from the Instant Pot or pressure cooker

Pressure Cooker Venetian Pasta and Beans. Pasta e Fagioli Alla Veneta is hearty Northern Italian comfort food, quick and easy with this Instant Pot recipe.

Pressure Cooker Pork Steaks, St. Louis BBQ Style. Pork shoulder steaks, BBQ style, ready in about an hour from an Instant Pot or pressure cooker.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Drumsticks With Peppers and Paprika. Simple chicken drumsticks cooked Italian style.

Pressure Cooker Barbecued Beef Top Round Sandwiches – a quick weeknight dinner with big beefy flavor.

Pressure Cooker Quick Chicken Tacos – when life is crazy, and dinner has to be on the table with the least amount of work, I reach for this recipe.