Manning Ivy - Instant Pot Italian: 100 irresistible recipes made easier than ever

INSTANT POT and associated logos are owned by Double Insight Inc. and are used under license.

Text copyright 2018 by Ivy Manning

Photography copyright 2018 by Lauren Volo

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-328-46760-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-328-46761-4 (ebk)

Book and cover design by Tai Blanche

Cover photographs by Lauren Volo

Food styling by Molly Shuster

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Close your eyes and imagine your favorite Italian food. You probably see a pot on the stove burbling away for hours, filling the kitchen with the wonderful aroma of tomatoes, garlic, and oregano. Perhaps theres a scattering of antipasti dishes on the table, alongside golden brown crostini. Maybe its a big bowl of pasta, a long-simmered osso buco on creamy risotto, or hearty chicken cacciatore. If you have a sweet tooth, an espresso chocolate cake or creamy Sicilian cassata might come to mind, too.

At first blush, it may seem unlikely that a modern appliance like the Instant Pot could tackle all these diverse dishes successfully. Im here to tell you the good news: The Instant Pot can cook all these things, better and faster than traditional methods.

In this book, Ive tapped into my experience cooking and living in Italy to translate my favorite Italian dishes to the Instant Pot. Although the Instant Pot has several functions, including Slow Cook, Rice, and Steam, Ive found that the Saut function and the manual Pressure Cook function do just about everything you need to make incredible Italian food.

Since your time is valuable, I include the real time it takes to make each recipe, both the hands-on preparation time and the total time, which includes the time it takes the pot to come up to pressure and for the pressure to release, so you can plan efficiently. Youll find that there are often time-saving instructions so you can multitask as the cooking gets under way, and notes on recipes that store well or are good do-ahead candidates. One-pot mealseasy to make and a boon to those who hate washing too many pots and pansare denoted with an icon.

Italians start meals with antipasti, so this book begins with a chapter full of recipes like eggplant caponata, tender seafood and grain salads, deviled eggs, and even focaccia to start your meal. The Instant Pot makes these dishes so easy, youll be able to serve a fancy-looking first course when entertaining, a quick nibble to serve with cocktails, or a light lunch in minutes.

Next youll find favorite soups like Minestrone, Tuscan Beef Stew, and Cannellini and Kale, plus some regional Italian soups you may not be familiar with that will add diverse flavors to your repertoire. Cooking soups under pressure not only makes beans, grains, and meats tender in minutes, it also super-charges the flavors. You may never use your old soup pot again!

In the chapter on pasta and grains, I share the sauces I learned during kitchen stints in Italy, adapted specifically for the Instant Pot. Cooking under pressure not only intensifies the flavors of tomatoes and aromatics, it also breaks down short ribs, veggies, and even lamb into hearty rags that would make an Italian grandmother proud.

Pasta sauces in the Instant Pot are a no-brainer, but did you know that you can cook an entire pasta dish all at once, dry noodles and all? Its so exciting to drop dry penne, cherry tomatoes, olives, broth, and a fresh tuna steak into the pot, press a button, and come back to a restaurant-worthy meal! Speaking of Italian restaurants, this chapter also shows you how to use your Instant Pot to make remarkably creamy risotto and polenta, no constant stirring required.

In the chapter on pork, beef, and lamb, Ive adapted the beautiful, thrifty braised meat dishes that Italian cuisine is known for. The Instant Pot makes amazing Milanese osso buco, Tuscan milk-braised pork loin, and lamb shanks that melt in your mouth. In addition to authentic meat dishes from Italy, I couldnt help but add some of my favorite Italian-American dishes, like Chicago sliced beef sandwiches, pork chops with figs, and gooey mozzarella-stuffed meatballs in marinara.

Chicken is a go-to for Italian and American cooks alike. In the poultry chapter, Ill introduce you to the wonders of classic dishes like chicken cacciatore, ground turkeystuffed bell peppers, and braised duck rag from Venice. If youve heard that chicken breasts are a no-go in the intense heat of the Instant Pot, my foolproof recipes for juicy chicken breasts stuffed with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil and chicken breasts braised in sweet bell pepper peperonata will change your mind.

You might be so enamored with what the Instant Pot can do for soup, pasta, and meat recipes that you forget your veggies, but you definitely shouldnt. I have a whole chapter devoted to them, and Ill show you the keys to using the Instant Pot to cook hard vegetables (think baby artichokes, celery root, and winter squash) in a fraction of the time theyd require on the stove. Ill also show you how to cook tender vegetables Italian styletomato-braised green beans, broccoli rabe with peppers, and even a clever riff on eggplant Parmesan. Youll see that the Instant Pot can be a handy tool to create tasty side dishes without taking up valuable stove space or requiring much work.

Youve no doubt already heard the wonders of cooking cheesecakes in the Instant Pot, but thats not all the machine can do for dessert. Ive converted my favorite Italian desserts to Instant Pot cooking, including miraculously moist cakes, silky custards, and even a molten-center espresso-chocolate number.

In the final chapter, I share reliable recipes for homemade pantry items that are the backbone of great Italian cooking. There are lessons on how to cook perfectly plump beans, essential homemade broths, and a delicious homemade marinara sauce thats leagues above the jarred stuff. You can even make homemade ricotta using your Instant Pots Yogurt setting!

Armed with this book and your Instant Pot multi-cooker, youll grow your repertoire of Italian cooking and get dinner on the table with minimal fuss. Mangia, mangia!

These tenets are applicable to any cuisine, but theyre especially true for authentic Italian flavor.

1. Quality in, quality out

Italian cooks know that the best dishes use the best ingredientskeep it simple, and let the flavors shine. There arent a lot of special ingredients called for in this book, but you do want to use good-quality ones to up your Italian cooking game. (No green-can Parmesan, please!) See for some of my favorites.