Air Fryer Pasta Bake

This is the easiest Air Fryer Pasta Bake recipe that is perfect for lunch or dinner. Simply cook your favourite pasta, mix with pasta sauce, top with cheese and cook in the air fryer.

Ingredients for Air Fryer Pasta Bake (cheese and tomato)

Full recipe with measurements can be found in the recipe card below where you can also leave a star rating

Pasta

The type of pasta you use is up to you. I like to use penne, rigatoni, elbow pasta or shells as they hold the most sauce however flat shapes like bowtie pasta are also fine to use.

You can make Air Fryer Baked Spaghetti if you use spaghetti instead of pasta shapes.

Gluten free pasta – for a healthy meal high in protein and gluten-free, use lentil pasta. I used lentil pasta to make these Tik Tok Air Fryer Pasta Chips. These crunchy pasta chips make for an healthy and easy snack instead of potato chips.

Pasta sauce – I have used sundried tomato and olive pasta sauce that I prepared in my Instant Pot

You can use store bought or my homemade marinara sauce

White sauce – you can buy store-bought bechamel sauce or make your own homemade cheese sauce

Alternatively, mix in cream cheese with the red sauce

Cheese – I have used cheddar cheese. Other options include mozzarella, red leicester, parmesan cheese to name a few. You can also use vegan cheese.

Seasoning – I have used Italian seasoning. You may want to add garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper for extra flavor

Variations

You may want to add in chopped vegetables such as mushrooms, peppers, aubergine or squash. Before adding to the dish, sauté in a frying pan with a little olive oil for 3-4 minutes.

How to make Pasta Bake in Air Fryer

I have used the Instant Pot Vortex Air Fryer but you can use any other.

Start by cooking the pasta until just al dente as it will continue to cook in the air fryer.

Mix the cooked pasta with your choice of pasta sauce. I mixed tomato pasta sauce with a homemade cheese sauce.

Add any extras such as cooked veggies and/or seasoning.

Transfer the pasta to a baking dish. Which baking dish you use will depend on the size of your air fryer.

Top with plenty of grated cheese.

Place the baking dish in the air fryer basket.

Air Fryer at 180C or 360F for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and is golden brown and bubbling.

The pasta bake time will vary based on size of your casserole dish and air fryer model.

As a rule of thumb, I suggest starting from 8 minutes and upwards for any pasta dishes for example Air Fryer Baked Macaroni and Cheese.

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