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Hi rdbiker, the recipe for Sirloin Tips in Mushroom Gravy over a Wide Egg Noodles, uses 1 cup red wine and 1 can of beef broth, in addition, there is also enough water to barely cover the pasta. The amount of water will vary, depending on the actual quantity of the ingredients as well as the size of your pressure cooker.


Expanding in the helpful info that Grace has already mentioned, I'll add that a little background and tell you that cooking pasta in the pressure cooker in this manner, is a method that I adapted from the upscale "absorption pasta" cooking method. Normally we cook pasta in a pot of boiling water, drain it and add the sauce which only coats the surface of the pasta. In the pressure cooker, the pasta absorbs all the flavor of the sauce as it expands during cooking, the starch from the pasta gives it a buttery, silky mouth texture.


In the photos below, you can see what I mean:





In this recipe for Beef with Pasta, I used radiatori, Italian style pasta. Look at the level of water shown in the picture on the left, and you can see how it doesn't quite cover all the ingredients. The finished dish must use the natural release method to allow the pasta enough time to slowly absorb the maximum amount of liquid. The photo on the right shows the pasta is still firm and al denti and has retained its nice shape with each piece covered in the rich sauce that had filled in all the little nooks and crannies. Most of the liquid has been absorbed by the pasta, leaving only a little bit of extra sauce.



Here are a couple of tips that might help you when cooking pasta in the pressure cooker:

Don't use any more liquid than necessary, adding only enough additional water to barely cover the ingredients.

Look for a good quality semolina pasta made from hard durum wheat. This Italian style pasta will hold up under pressure cooking better than any any other type.

Don't overcook. When using the natural release method as called for in this recipe, remember to remove the pressure cooker from the heat source because the hot burner still retains heat and can overcook the food. Open the lid as soon as the pressure cooker has depressurized and transfer the food to a serving plate. This will stop the cooking and keep your pasta from getting overcooked and too soft or mushy.


One last thing, if you are using an electric pressure cooker, keep in mind that the heating element inside will hold heat for quite some time and that means it is still cooking the food until is is finally depressurized. As a result, the electric appliances take a much longer time to depressurize. This is a well-known drawback, and you may not ever be able to achieve the same results as with the same recipe prepared in today's new, modern stove top pressure cookers. Try it again, using semolina pasta, and see if you have a better outcome.