French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons, in an Instant Pot

Jeff the Chef

It’s amazing how much this French Onion Pasta tastes like its namesake soup, but it has added comfort-foodiness. The croutons give a really nice textural contrast.

French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons in an Instant Pot
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French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons in an Instant Pot

Recipe by Make It Like a Man!Course: Dinner
Makes

8

moderate servings

Don’t forget to turn the oven off once you cheese the croutons!

Ingredients

  • For the Croutons:

  • 2 Tbs butter

  • 2 Tbs olive oil

  • 1 large clove garlic, crushed

  • 4 to 5 cups torn, stale, peasant bread

  • ½ cup grated Gruyère

  • ¼ cup grated Parmesan

  • 1 tsp dried thyme

  • For the Pasta:

  • 1/3 cup olive oil

  • 4 med-large yellow onions, thinly sliced

  • Salt, to taste

  • 5 garlic cloves, minced

  • 10½ oz. gourmet mushrooms blend, sliced

  • 1 generous tsp dried thyme

  • 2/3 cup dry white wine

  • 2 generous tsp beef stock reduction

  • 4¼ cups water, divided

  • 16 oz. dried orecchiette or other short cut pasta

  • 1 Tbs +2 tsp sherry or white wine vinegar

  • 2 Tbs +2 tsp all purpose flour

  • 3 oz. Gruyère, shredded, (plus more for serving)

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • Fresh herbs for serving (optional)

Directions

  • Make the croutons.
  • Preheat oven to 350˚F. Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ, more, 30 minutes. Without waiting for the “hot” indication, add the butter, oil, and garlic to the pot. As soon as the butter has melted, CANCEL the sauté. Add the bread; stir and toss thoroughly. Pour the bread onto a baking sheet and use a flexible spatula to scrape any remaing oil in the pot onto the bread. Spread the bread into an even layer. Toast until golden, 10-15 minutes, turning on occasion. Add cheeses and thyme, turn the oven off, and place the baking sheet back in oven to melt cheese.  
  • Make the pasta.
  • Did you turn the oven off?
  • Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ, accepting its defaults, and wait for the “hot” indication. Add oil and wait until it shimmers, a few seconds. Add onions and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until caramelized – which should have happened by the time the pot auto-cancels the sauté.
  • Re-set the pot to SAUTÉ, accepting its defaults. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme. Sauté until the mushrooms begin to soften, 3-4 minutes. Add the wine and thoroughly deglaze the pan. Stir in the stock reduction. CANCEL the sauté. Taste for seasoning.
  • Pour in 4 cups of water. Taste again for seasoning. Pour the pasta on top of the pot’s contents, and push it down in an attempt to submerge it more or less, but don’t stir. Set the pot to PRESSURE COOK, high, normal (3 minutes). Quick release.
  • Stir remaining 1/4-cup water into the flour to make a slurry. Set the pot to SAUTÉ, accepting its defaults. Stir the slurry into the pot and cook until thickened, which will happen almost instantly. CANCEL the sauté. Stir in vinegar, cheese, and pepper. Taste for seasoning. Serve warm with (herbs, cheese, and) croutons.

Notes

  • I developed this recipe for a six-quart Instant Pot. If using a different size or type of pot, you may need to make modifications.
"French Onion Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!
I may have made these croutons a bit too big

This recipe for French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons is perfect for the Instant Pot. The flavor is quite like French onion soup, but in a pasta form, it has an unbeatable comfort-food quality. The mushrooms help amp up the umami, and the croutons give it a welcome textural balance. Although it’s perfect fresh, it also reheats well. It’s lighter on cheese that French onion soup would be, but if you miss that, you can garnish servings with plenty of cheese, and run it quicky under a broiler.

Social Learning

As they’re cooking, at first you can stir the onions occasionally. But as they begin to caramelize, you need to stir them about every three minutes. You’ll notice that a fond will begin to develop, and you need to stir it back into the onion. As you do this, you should be able to completely deglaze the pan via assiduous stirring. Each time you complete this cycle, the fond will be greater than it was before. If the pan develops a fond that you fear you won’t be able to stir away, decrease the intervals between stirs to two minutes.

If you don’t have any stale bread, or don’t feel like waiting for the bread to go stale, you can make due with fresh.

For my gourmet mushroom blend, I used cremini, shittake, oyster, and button.

"French Onion Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!
"French Onion Pasta," from Make It Like a Man!

French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons, in an Instant Pot

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man!, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Cook Smarts, Rachel Ray, The Kitchn, Wandering Chickpea. Make It Like a Man! has been ranked by Feedspot as #14 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. Keep up with us on Bloglovin’

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52 thoughts on “French Onion Pasta with Cheesy Croutons, in an Instant Pot”

  1. de quoi se régaler avec ce superbe plat de pates, qui à l’air délicieux!!
    je vous souhaite une très bonne et heureuse année 2023

    Reply

  3. “French Onion” seems to be a popular recipe as I recently made French Onion Chicken (not posted yet), Gruyere, caramelized onions and thyme are key ingredients – your croutons are a great plus. No instapot but it’s easy to make on the stove or in the oven 🙂

    Reply

  4. This looks great. As for onions: I’m probably wrong, but in general they seem bigger to me than they were 20 and more years ago. I bought a white sweet onion yesterday, and it’s huge.

    Reply

  6. Wonderful. I’m trying to cut carbs at this point in time, but this is a really lovely recipe! I love the idea of pasta with croutons!

    Reply

  11. Fascinating recipe. I think I’d be nervous about cooking pasta under pressure, for fear I’d overcook it. But come to think about it I make risotto in the pressure cooker all the time, so why not pasta?

    Anyway, I love the pairing. Reminds me a bit of a Neapolitan dish called pasta alla genovese, which I love. And I also love French onion soup. So I bet I’d enjoy this, too!
    Frank | Memorie di Angelina recently posted…Gulasch triestino

    Reply

    • You do have to be careful, because it is easy to overcook the pasta. Thanks, Frank!

      Reply

  22. Bonsoir .
    des très bonne pâte française bien appétissante .
    Je te souhaite une bonne soirée et une bonne semaine .

    Reply

    • I’m sure it would be. You would have to use something else to deglaze the pan, like maybe stock. If you don’t deglaze the pan, it’s likely that the Instant Pot will give you a “burn” notice when it pressurizes.

      Reply

  25. Oh, now this is one I for sure will be trying. Pinning to make as soon as we get back home from Florida in a few weeks. I love the soup so I am super excited to try this pasta!
    Theresa recently posted…Versatile Tomato Sauce

    Reply

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