Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù - Instant Pot

This Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù is not only delicious stirred through with a fresh herby ricotta, thanks to the Instant Pot, it is also quick enough for a weeknight meal. 

I honestly don’t know what took me so long to start using my Instant Pot. As I’ve mentioned before, it took a kitchen renovation to motivated me but, boy, howdy, do I love that thing now!

Anytime I see a slow cooker recipe that starts out by sautéing or browning something in a pan on the stove first, I think, HA. I can make that in the Instant Pot and skip the stove step. And I usually do. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the term ragù, it's just a fancy (Italian) way of saying meat sauce. Merriam-Webster defines ragù as "a hearty, seasoned Italian sauce of meat and tomatoes that is used chiefly in pasta dishes and that is typically made with ground beef, tomatoes, and finely chopped onions, celery, and carrots."

Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù with Herby Ricotta

This recipe is adapted from a slow cooker one in the New York Times cooking section. The original took six hours to cook and contains only chicken. I highly recommend the addition of the hot Italian sausage to this dish you will make and serve in less than 30 minutes in your Instant Pot.

Ingredients

For the ragù:

19 oz or 538g hot Italian sausage

1 small carrot

1 small yellow or purple onion 

4 cloves garlic

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 10 oz or 290g each)

1 can (14.5 oz or 411g) crushed or diced tomatoes 

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)

1 sprig fresh oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano)

1 ½ teaspoons red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the herbed ricotta topping: 

1 cup or 250g whole-milk ricotta

Heaping 1/4 cup chopped soft fresh herbs, such as chives, oregano, parsley or basil, or a mix

zest 1 medium lemon

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

To serve:

10 oz or 285g tagliatelle, fettuccine, linguine or other long, thick pasta, cooked al dente according to package instructions.

Method

Peel and chop the carrot, onion and garlic. 

Remove the casings from the Italian sausage and put it in the Instant Pot on sauté. Cook for several minutes using a wooden spoon to break the sausage into crumbles as it browns. 

Add in the carrot, onion and garlic. Sauté, stirring often, for a few minutes more until the vegetables soften. 

Nestle the chicken breasts into the sausage and vegetables. 

Top with the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper and a sprinkle of fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and set it manually to 9 minutes. 

When the time is up, safely release the pressure. Remove and discard the herb sprigs.

Transfer the chicken breast to a cutting board and use two forks to shred the chicken then return it to the Instant Pot and stir well. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. 

While the pasta cooks, chop your herbs and combine them in a small bowl with the ricotta, lemon zest, balsamic vinegar and salt. 

Taste the sauce, adding more red-pepper flakes, if you like, and salt if needed.

Divide the pasta among bowls. Top with ragu and a good spoon of the herby ricotta. 

Enjoy! 

It’s MultiCooker Monday! Check out the variety of small appliance recipes my friends are sharing today. Many thanks to our host and organizer, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Meringue Kisses in Toaster Oven from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken from Making Miracles
• Beef Barbacoa Tacos from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragu - Instant Pot from Food Lust People Love
• Ropa Vieja in the Slow Cooker from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• How to Cook Jowar/Sorghum in Instant Pot from Magical Ingredients

                                                         

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 

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