Name: Instant Pot Ham Pasta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 2 carrots, diced; 2 pieces of celery, diced; 1-2 cups leftover ham; 4 cup chicken broth; 16 oz macaroni noodles or similar noodle; 1 teaspoon garlic powder; 1 teaspoon onion powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon pepper; 1/2 cup peas; 1 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded; 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

Love ham? You have got to try this Instant Pot ham pasta! It combines fresh or leftover ham with macaroni and cheese plus some added vegetables. It’s a quick one pot meal that even your picky eaters will enjoy. Let me show you how to make this easy Instant Pot dinner!

I am a big fan of leftovers. I love being able to cook a big meal that I know will end up feeding the family more than once. Sometimes it’s just a lunch leftover or sometimes I’m able to get a whole other dinner out of one meal.

When I make ham in the Instant Pot I get excited. Not only is it a super easy Instant Pot dinner, but I always have leftovers for another meal. Enter Instant Pot ham pasta!

What is Instant Pot ham pasta?

Ham pasta is a combination of cooked ham and mac and cheese. You can use leftover ham or you can use fresh ham such as a ham steak or even diced ham. The great thing about using ham is that it’s a meat that is already cooked and only needs to be heated up. This reduces the cook time and makes this dinner quick and easy!

Ham pasta ingredients

To make this easy Instant pot pasta dish you only need a few ingredients. This dish can also customized to your tastes. To make this recipe you will need:

ham
carrots
celery
chicken broth
macaroni
butter
garlic powder
onion powder
peas
cheese

Ham – You can use either leftover ham or ham bought from the store such as a ham steak or diced ham. Both work great in this recipe.

Carrots and celery – Grab 2 carrots and 2 pieces of celery. These give the pasta a nice texture and bring out the flavor of the ham even more.

You can add any other vegetables you would like as well. Onion or zucchini would make great additions.

Chicken broth – You will need 4 cups of chicken broth for this recipe. You can easily sub water or even a combo of broth and water. There just needs to be 4 cups of liquid to properly cook the pasta.

Pasta – You can use whatever pasta noodles you like or have on hand. I had bowties and they worked great. I would suggest a broad noodle to soak up the flavor and cheese!

Spices – I kept my spices mild since I used leftover ham that had a ton of flavor. If you are using plain ham you may want to kick up your spices a notch.

Cheese – I used a mozzarella and Parmesan blend for my cheese here. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand or your favorite cheese blend. You will need about 2 cups of cheese.

How to make ham pasta

Step 1– Start by trying your Instant Pot to saute. Add your butter, diced carrots and celery. Saute the veggies until they become fork tender, about 5 minutes. Add in the deiced ham and warm through.

how to make cheesy instant pot ham pasta

Step 2 – Add the chicken broth and scrap off any brown bits at the bottom of the inner pot. This will help prevent a BURN notice. Pour in the noodles and press them under the liquid. Top with the butter.

Step 3 – Put the lid on, set the valve to SEALING and cook on manual high pressure for 5 minutes. Do a quick release when the cooking has finished.

easy leftover ham recipe in the instant pot

Step 4: Remove the lid and stir the pasta noodles to prevent clumps. Do not remove any of the liquid! It will absorb into the noodles.

Add in your cheese and the peas. You can use frozen or canned peas here. Stir to combine the cheese. Keep stirring to prevent clumpy cheese.

Step 5: Serve with your favorite side dish and enjoy!

Side dish ideas

Although this ham pasta is a one pot meal of itself, a good side dish would really round it out. Some side dish suggestions are:

How to store leftovers

Kind of funny that a meal made of leftovers can have leftovers. To keep this pasta fresh, store in an airtight container in the fridge. It will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge. You can also store it in a plastic baggy in the fridge.

How to freeze ham pasta

Make the ham pasta according to the recipe below. Allow to cool completely and place on a lined cookie sheet. Flash freeze the pasta on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a ziplock baggy to store in your freezer. Pasta will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer.