Herb cheese spirali cooked in the instant pot

For such baked pasta you can use whatever you’ve got in stock. My curiosity was all about making it in the instant pot. And what I especially liked in this type of steamed cooking – the outcome always gets moist and tender. The instant pot rules!:)

       Ingredients

200 g spirali [any pasta]
a bunch of regular spinach [roughly 200 grams]
a bunch of fresh dill
a bunch of fresh parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs
200 ml milk
150 g feta cheese
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt

       Method

• Cook pasta in a pan of boiling salted water until very al dente [it’ll continue cooking in the instant pot/oven, so it should be undercooked]. Drain in a colander, reserving some of the cooking water for blanching the spinach.
• Line the instant pot with parchment paper [it helps to remove your bake easily]. For the oven baking – preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease a medium ovenproof baking dish with a little olive oil.
• Remove stems from spinach and blanch in the same pot of boiling water until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain and squeeze the excess of water. Chop finely fennel and parsley.
• Whisk together the eggs, milk, olive oil, turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper until combined. Add pasta, spinach, fennel and parsley to the egg mixture. Grate in two-thirds of feta (you can season it with a good twist of any pepper you like), transfer to the instant pot/prepared baking dish. Pour the pasta mixture over. Grate in the remaining feta and sprinkle over the pasta. Press function ‘baking’ for the instant pot (I set also time – 30 minutes) , or bake for 20 minutes in the oven, or until golden. Serve!

Bon Appétit!

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