Instant Pot Tortellini Soup

• Quick, easy, and convenient!
  We prefer pressure cooker recipes instead of one-skillet recipes for making quick and easy dinners. Why? Because generally, meals made in an Instapot are less hands-on and usually require less cooking time.
  So really, they’re the best versions of one-pot meals!
• Best flavor in the shortest amount of time.
  Just like ravioli lasagna and lasagna soup Instant Pot, this quick Italian soup tastes like it had to simmer all day. But, it only takes around 30 minutes to prepare.

• Ground Meat – Your choice of ground pork or chicken sausage. Or, use ground beef, or any other ground protein.
  
• Yellow onion – peeled and diced, for a sweet but still pungent flavor.
  
• Chicken Broth – You can substitute the broth for chicken stock, beef broth/stock, or even vegetable broth.
  
• HOT Water – using hot water helps the Instant Pot come to pressure more quickly.
  
• Tortellini – You can use fresh or frozen. If using frozen tortellini, add 1 minute to the pressure cooking time shown in our recipe card, at the bottom of this post.
  
• Seasonings – bay leaves, Italian seasoning, and salt. You can also use garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and freshly ground black pepper.

• Spicy tortellini soup – Swap the mild Italian sausage for hot.
  
• Vegetarian Instant Pot tortellini soup – skip the sausage, use vegetable broth, and bulk the dish up with veggies. Instead of Italian sausage, use a cup of chopped zucchini. At the end, stir in some frozen chopped spinach. The heat from the pot will warm it up quickly.
  
• Creamy Italian sausage soup with pasta – for a creamy soup, stir in 4 ounces of cream cheese after pressure cooking.

Tips to Prevent an Instant Pot Food Burn:

Thick and/or acidic foods tend to burn onto the bottom of the inner pot. When this happens, a notice will appear on the pressure cooker’s display as “BURN,” “OvHt,” or “Food Burn.”

Here are some suggestions for preventing and dealing with a burn notice:

1. Before pressure cooking, turn the Instant Pot to sauté and let it warm up. Also, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil before adding ingredients to the inner pot This helps to keep food and sauces from sticking and burning.
   
2. If you sauté meats before pressure cooking, deglaze your pot by adding the broth a few minutes before sealing your pot.
   
3. Keep an extra Instant Pot liner insert on hand. If you get a burn notice, then having an extra pot will allow you to safely transfer the food to a clean pot and continue cooking. Plus, an extra inner pot gives you flexibility when pressure cooking.
   
   How long to cook rice in an instant pot or potatoes first, add a silicone lid to that pot, and use the second pot for cooking the meat.

For more information on how to handle a burn notice, read this article from America’s Test Kitchen.