Perfect Pasta - NOT!

     I know I rave about how my Instant Pot does amazing things!  It really does if you follow the directions, but when you leave pasta cooking 11 minutes past its appropriate time, then you get substantially mushy pasta.  My goal was to cook this pasta:

     This is 16 oz package of Elbow Macaroni, which I added 4 cups of water and about a table spoon of salt. It is best to cook pasta in salt water.  (I have a family of 6 who really love pasta, so I actually doubled it and cooked two packages with 8-8 and a half cups of water with a bit of salt.)  By the time I actually opened the pot the pasta had absorbed all of water.  By the way, when you release the pressure it will splatter a bit as it is really full of liquid.  I recommend you have a really light weight towel or dish rag that you lay carefully over the top to of the went to minimize the mess.  Make sure that it is light enough that steam can still escape, but that it will absorb any of the liquid exiting the vent!

     The Instant Pot cooks perfect pasta, in only 4 minutes, but it does require that you pay attention and remove the pasta immediately after cooking so that it will al dente!  However, if you get distracted, as I did, you will end up with substantially soggy pasta.  (I ran cold water over this pasta to immediately stop the majority of cooking.) At this point I would normally add the fixings for the Macaroni and Cheese from this recipe, which my kids loved, but I had leftover Nacho Cheese with spices and sausage from New Years Eve that I heated up and mixed into this to create my hybrid version of Mac N' Cheese.  The kids said it was tooo cheesy.  Who knew you could actually have too much cheese? Creamy Mac and Cheese! Thanks Corey!

    The end result, mushy pasta and all, looked and tasted like Mac n' Cheese with sausage, taco seasoning, with a touch of heat from Cheyenne pepper.  It was edible, but was very rich and required you to have something to drink to cut the richness.  My ratio of cheese to pasta was a tad bit off.  I used 3-4 cups of the Nacho Cheese mix, which I realized upon tasting it was too much.  I usually add 3/4 of a cup of Parmesan cheese to the mix, sour cream, and half a block of cream cheese.  (This is in addition to the regular stuff of the recipe.  Mostly because I am into the rich creamy taste that it gives the macaroni and cheese.)  If you family likes to have a little protein to the mix, I will add half a cup of bacon crumbles.  (Like these below available at Sam's Club.)  I have also grilled chicken and chopped it into bite sized pieces and added it to the Mac and Cheese. 

So much easier than cooking and chopping your own bacon!