Ninja Foodi Lamb Pasta Bake. How to make a delicious leftover lamb pasta bake using the pressure cooker function and air fryer lid on the Ninja Foodi.
Even better, this Ninja Foodi pasta recipe, can easily be mixed and matched with whatever leftovers you have in. Plus, we will also be sharing with you some top tips and tricks for cooking pasta in the Ninja Foodi with the slow cooker function, and pressure cooker function.
Table of Contents
Lamb Pasta Bake
When it comes to any leftover roast meat, my favourite part is the next day, when I get to make delicious recipes with my leftovers.
Kyle kind of rolls his eyes when I mention leftovers, like he is fed up with my years of leftover meals.
But hey that is my thing, and I am sure I will be making leftover meals for years to come, and it helps me make a really good saving on groceries along the way.
This lamb pasta dish came about after leftovers from when we were having air fryer roast lamb.
We had cooked lamb in the air fryer and now had quite a bit leftover. Not enough to serve as a full roast dinner, but enough to be added into another dish.
That is when lamb pasta bake makes the perfect leftover dinner. You can chop up your lamb in a similar way to pulled pork, then load it into the Ninja Foodi to make pasta bake with leftover lamb.
You then have your small portion of lamb as enough food to feed five people for dinner.
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Can You Cook Pasta In The Ninja Foodi?
Yes, you sure can cook pasta in the Ninja Foodi. I have done it several times and each time I have been impressed with how easy it is.
You can cook Ninja Foodi pasta using the slow cooker function or the pressure cooker function.
I love both and prefer the slow cooker function for a ninja pasta bake, whilst the pressure cooker function is amazing for when you want a quick pot of mac and cheese or like we are doing today, using up those leftovers.
Ninja Foodi Pasta
Before we dive into the lamb pasta recipe, I wanted to show you a few examples of how to cook pasta in Ninja Foodi.
Mac & Cheese – Our Ninja Foodi Mac & Cheese is very easy recipe to do, and you can use it to do any plain pasta with as well as a cheese loaded one. Master this method and you can rinse and repeat with so many different dishes. You can also follow the same cook times for several different recipes too.
Spaghetti – If you would like a dump and start recipe for Ninja Foodi spaghetti Bolognese then this is it. It teaches you that you add the meat first with water and then spaghetti is placed over the meat. Everything is perfectly stacked for a perfect result.
Both the above is using the pressure cooker function and today will be our third Ninja Foodi recipe made with the pressure cooker.
An alternative is to use the slow cooker function like we have done with our slow cooker mince pasta bake. A similar concept and ideal for a set and forget pasta dish.
Even better, the slow cooker on the Ninja is a little slower than a regular slow cooker (an hour on average longer to cook than my Crockpot) and this stops you accidentally over cooking the pasta.
Creamy Lamb Pasta Bake
If you would like a really creamy lamb pasta bake, then I recommend before adding the cheese topping that you mix in an extra ingredient.
Anything that you would normally use to make a creamy pasta bake will work well such as:
- Crème fraiche
- Greek yoghurt
- Sour cream
- Cream cheese
My favourite is to use Greek yoghurt or cream cheese, plus a little milk.
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Lamb Pasta Bake Ingredients
Lamb – Any leftover lamb. It can be from any leftover roast that you have cooked. Just chop it into small pieces and then it will be perfect for cooking with.
Pasta – I recommend any small to medium pasta shells. Macaroni works well in a lamb pasta bake, but its personal choice which you go with.
Stock – I recommend any stock but veggie, beef, lamb, or chicken work best. Check out our instant pot chicken stock as it shows you how to pressure cook your own stock from leftovers.
Tomatoes – I recommend instead of just using a meat stock that you use some tinned tomatoes. Most of us have some in our pantry, its easy to source and it gives it that wonderful Mediterranean flavour.
Seasonings – Then for seasoning for your leftover lamb pasta bake I recommend garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and oregano.
Extras – Because this is a Ninja Foodi pasta bake we have plenty of cheese being added. Even better, we are using the Ninja Foodi air fryer lid to make the cheese wonderfully melted.
Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this lamb pasta bake recipe it has just been our Ninja Foodi. We have this one and its my favourite and great for combining the function of the pressure cooker with the air fryer.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our ninja foodi recipes category as we have many recipes and have been using air fryers for 10 years, pressure cookers for 5 years and the Ninja Foodi since 2020.
How To Cook Pasta Bake In Ninja Foodi?
- Prep – Chop your lamb into small pieces and peel and dice any extra veggies you would like to add in.
- Sauté. Start cooking by sauteing an onion in the Ninja Foodi using the sauté setting. This will create a non-stick layer in your Ninja and add flavour to the pot before the pasta gets added.
- Dump – Then dump in your pasta, tinned tomatoes, stock, seasonings etc and mix and make sure no pasta is above the liquid.
- Cook. Pressure cook, then after a 4 minute natural pressure release remove the remaining pressure.
- Add. Then add in your shredded lamb and anything you would like to add to make it creamy. Then cover with grated cheese.
- Melt. Finally use the air fryer lid to melt the cheese and warm through the lamb before serving.
And I am sure you can see now why I love cooking pasta in the Ninja Foodi and why it has become one of my favourite pasta dishes.
How Long To Cook Pasta In Ninja Foodi?
The Ninja Foodi pasta cook time is JUST 3 minutes. You follow this up with a 4 minute natural pressure release.
This is then followed up with 5 minutes using the air fryer lid.
Giving you a total Ninja Foodi pasta cook time of 10 minutes including the sauteing of the onion.
Pasta Bake Tips & Tricks
- You can use any stock you want in your pasta bake. Just make sure no pasta is above the water or it will go hard and horrible and wont cook well.
- If you want to add some spice to your lamb pasta then I recommend swapping tinned tomatoes for salsa.
- Because the lamb is been reheated already, you can’t reheat this lamb pasta bake, so only make enough to feed your family.
Interesting pressure cooker Trick – Add in the garlic at the last moment before turning off the sauté. Garlic sticks to the pot (A LOT!!!) and it will save you a deep clean after cooking.
More Delicious Lamb Recipes
- Air Fryer Lamb Chops
- Air Fryer Leg Of Lamb
- Instant Pot Leg Of Lamb
- Slow Cooker Lamb Ragu
- Slow Cooker Roast Lamb
- Slow Cooker Lamb Stew & Dumplings
Your ninja foodi pasta bake recipe is below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Ninja Foodi Lamb Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 Medium White Onion
- 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Frozen Garlic
- 750 ml Chicken Stock
- 1 Can Tinned Tomatoes
- 500 g Macaroni Pasta
- 1 Tbsp Tomato Puree
- 2 Tsp Basil
- 2 Tsp Oregano
- Salt & Pepper
Extra Ingredients
- 75 g Grated Cheddar Cheese
- 4 Tbsp Milk
- 1 Tbsp Cream Cheese
- 400 g Leftover Roast Lamb
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Peel and dice your onion and shred your lamb. Put your lamb to one side and then load the onion and extra virgin olive oil into the Ninja and sauté until the onion starts to soften. Cancel sauté and stir in the garlic.
- Load everything else into the Ninja apart from the extra ingredients, stir and make sure all the pasta is submerged.
- Pressure cook the Ninja Foodi pasta for 3 minutes, followed by a 4 minute natural pressure release. Then release pressure.
- Stir in cream cheese and milk to create a creamy pasta sauce. Stir in the lamb. And also add some extra oregano.
- Then sprinkle the top with grated cheese.
- Place the air fryer lid down and cook using the air fryer lid for 5 minutes at 200c/400f. Then serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
I never thought of lamb mince as a good meat to use as a pasta bake ,but this was delicious. I changed it slightly because i like some heat with my pasta but tit was a good start, thanks.