If you like pasta and one-pot meals, this Instant Pot stuffed shell is the dish for you!
A great option for meatless Monday or anytime you'd like a vegetarian dinner.
You can make it in your Instant Pot or any other pressure cooker in just 30 minutes (total).
Table of Contents
Do I need to precook the shells?
No. This is a one-pot meal so you can use the shells directly from the package.
Recipe Video
How about the marinara sauce?
For the marinara sauce, you can make it yourself using this Instant Pot Marinara sauce recipe or just use store-bought.
Can I Use a Different Sauce?
Yes! Feel free to replace the marinara sauce with pesto, bolognese, spaghetti sauce, meat sauce, or any other sauce you like.
I’m always doing that when I want to diversify without getting bored of this Instant Pot stuffed shells recipe.
How to serve?
You can have it as is, with fresh salad or steamed vegetables.
For more quick and easy ideas for side dishes, check What To Serve With Stuffed Shells.
Can I Use Frozen Spinach?
I highly recommend using fresh baby spinach for this recipe.
Frozen spinach contains a lot of water, so it may result in the shells becoming too watery.
If you do use frozen spinach, make sure to fully defrost and drain it first, squeezing out as much excess liquid as possible with your hands.
If using fresh spinach, you should briefly boil the spinach, then drain and squeeze out excess water before adding to the cheese mixture.
The spinach can be minced after cooking and draining.
How many shells do I need?
Since we are placing the shells in a single layer, the amount change based on your Instant Pot size.
If you have a 6-quart Instant Pot - use 16 stuffed shells.
If you have an 8-quart Instant Pot - use 20 stuffed shells.
More Helpful Tips
It may seem strange to add water to the marinara sauce, but it’s necessary for this recipe.
If you don’t add sufficient water, the marinara may start to burn and you’ll get a burning message on your Instant Pot.
So, make sure to add the full 1 and ½ cups of water.
After you add the water, use a wooden spoon or flexible rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and corners of the pot.
Sometimes there will be bits of stuck-on onion or marinara sauce that could also cause a burning message, so make sure to scrape them off before pressure cooking to prevent this.
How to make
Gather all the ingredients first, trust me it lessens the hassle.
Take the Spinach and chop it.
Now take an onion and chop it, chop the garlic as well.
Take the Parsseman Cheese and shred it.
Take a bowl, and add Ricotta Cheese.
Add the chopped Spinach, and shredded Mozzarella into the bowl.
Now add previously shredded Parssamen Cheese and an egg as well.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well.
Now take your Instant pot to add olive oil.
Add previously minced garlic.
Now add chopped onions and set the pot to Saute for 5 minutes.
Add Marinara Sauce after Sauteeing and stir well.
Add ½ cup of water so our mixture doesn't burn and stir well.
Now comes the fun part!
Take Pasta shells and fill them with the stuffing we prepared earlier.
Fill the Pasta shells and keep putting them into the sauce in Instant Pot.
Set the Instant pot to High Pressure for 8 minutes.
Do a quick release.
Add Mozzarella onto the freshly cooked shells and set the instant pot to High pressure AGAIN for 4 minutes.
Do a quick release and Voila! your Instant Pot Stuffed Shells are ready to be served 🙂
One-Pot Pasta Recipes
Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken Pasta
Instant Pot Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
- 16-20 pasta shells uncooked
- 2 cups ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- ½ cup parmesan cheese grated
- 2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- 10 ounces spinach boiled or defrosted, minced
- 2 tablespoon fresh basil minced
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 cups marinara sauce
- 1.5 cups water
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a bowl mix spinach, ricotta, mozzarella (1 cup), parmesan cheese, whisked egg, salt, pepper and minced basil.
- Stuff the pasta shells with the filling.
- Press "Saute" and add olive oil to the Instant Pot.
- Add onion and garlic and saute for 2 minutes until golden.
- Add marinara sauce, stir and saute for 1 more minute.
- Add water and stir well.
- Place the stuffed shells in the sauce in one layer.
- Close the lid and cook at high pressure for 8 minutes.
- When cooking time is complete, do a quick pressure release.
- Open the lid and sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella cheese (1 cup).
- Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes.
- When cooking time is complete, do a quick pressure release and open the lid.
- Carefully remove shells with a slotted spoon to serve. Spoon extra sauce on top and garnish with additional parmesan cheese and fresh basil 🙂
Nutrition
Video
Instant Pot Heavenly Stuffed Shells
Thanks Rachael. Glad you like it 🙂
Your instructions are very easy to understand. Easy on the mind, and the meals are delicious . I am loving it.
Thank you Mike! Glad you like this recipe :]
What have people done to get rid of the burn notification and how do you make spinach less watery???
For the spinach, use fresh baby spinach to avoid any liquid. If you’re using frozen spinach you can wrap it in paper towels or cheese cloth and press into a strainer to release all excess liquid.
Hope this helps 🙂
Horrible instructions. Gave me the burn notice as well. The recipe needs to be more specific. For instance it did not specify instructions for spinach. The shells exploded and now it’s soupy. Way to much liquid.
I found the directions very deliberate!
I am a new owner of the 1.5L cooker and I have a lot of difficulty resizing recipes for the smaller pot. I'm not to good at converting liters to cups.
I got the BURN NOTICE too. GRRRRR. I wish the author would have addressed this.
How frustrating. I should have listened to the posts.
Could I make this with an Alfredo based sauce or would it be too thick? Would the shells stick to the bottom without a thick layer of meat sauce to place the shells on top of?
Its up to your choice to use the Alfredo sauce instead of marinara sauce. But definitely it would be a new taste.
I'm seeing comments about a BURN notice and the FB post where I found the recipe references BURN notices. Anyway to avoid this error message?
Tasted great - but I had persistent burn notice, finished the dish in the oven.
Next time try pot in pot.
Did you precook the noodles?
No 🙂
Thanks! Now I know I don't need to pre-cook the pasta.