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Creamy Tomato Pasta

By Nagi Maehashi
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Pink pasta! Spaghetti tossed with a creamy tomato sauce that’s totally slurp worthy, this Creamy Tomato Pasta is silky and indulgent tasting but the tomato cream sauce doesn’t actually have that much cream in it!

Serve it as is, or use it as a base for your own add-ins. Try tossing through some shredded leftover Roast Chicken or Poached Chicken, or adding a handful of spinach.

Creamy tomato pasta on a plate with marinated kale salad.

Creamy tomato sauce for pasta

Is it pink? Or orange?

It doesn’t sound nearly as fun to chat to you about an orange pasta sauce.

I’m sticking with pink.

Pink tomato cream sauce!

“This pasta with tomato cream sauce is a less guilty way to get your creamy pasta fix!”

Creamy Tomato Pasta in a skillet with parmesan.

Tomato cream sauce – a healthier creamy pasta!

This is the first recipe I’ve made for my website after being away for almost a month, firstly on the annual RecipeTin Family trip to Japan, followed shortly thereafter by a trip with friends to New Zealand.

You would think that she who sulked so mightily when she found her jeans were just as snug post-trek as they were pre-trek would be inspired to be share some bright, fresh salads, “goddess cleansing bowls”, be converted to zoodles or cauliflower crust pizza.

But alas, no. She craves creamy pasta. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Well, at least this is a less guilty creamy pasta!  There’s a generous amount of tomato cream sauce in this pasta (you’ll see in the video) but it’s mostly tomato and milk.

And actually, this can even be made without cream. Cream isn’t a pantry staple for me so I sometimes make the Creamy Tomato Pasta sauce just using milk and adding an extra dollop of butter to add richness.

Creamy Tomato Pasta - a less guilty way to get your creamy pasta fix, this luscious sauce is made with tomato, milk, parmesan, garlic and cream.

I’ve provided the recipe plain which is how I usually have it, because it’s so lovely and saucy it deserves to be twirled and slurped just as it is. However, add-ins are entirely possible and I’ve provided some tips in the recipe for how to do so.

Try this with a fresh garden salad with a Balsamic dressing, French or Italian dressing on the side. If you feel like going all out, add a side of Better-Than-Dominos Garlic Bread or Cheesy Garlic Bread. Enjoy! – Nagi x

More ways to get your creamy pasta fix!

Creamy Tomato Pasta on a fork.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Pasta with tomato cream sauce
Watch how to make it

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Creamy tomato pasta on a plate with marinated kale salad.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 20 minutes
Mains
Western
4.96 from 74 votes
Servings4
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Recipe video above. Pasta in a pink tomato cream sauce! You’ll love how creamy this sauce is, how there’s plenty of it and yet you don’t need gallons of cream. Slurp-worthy as it is, or use it as a base for add ins of your choice – suggestions in the recipe notes. 

Ingredients

  • 300g/10 oz spaghetti
  • 2 tbsp / 30g unsalted butter
  • 3 garlic cloves , minced
  • ½ onion , finely chopped
  • 1 cup / 250 ml tomato passata / tomato puree (Note 1)
  • 3/4 cup / 185 ml heavy / thickened cream (Note 2 for subs)
  • 1/2 cup / 125 ml milk , low fat
  • 3/4 cup / 30g parmesan , finely freshly grated (Note 3)
  • 1 tsp dried basil, or other herb of choice
  • 1 tsp chicken or vegetable stock powder , or 1 bouillon cube, crumbled (Note 4)
  • Finely ground pepper + salt

Instructions

  • Cook pasta in a big pot of boiling water for time per packet MINUS 2 minutes. Just before draining, scoop out a mugful of pasta cooking water.
  • Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, cook until translucent – about 2 minutes.
  • Add remaining ingredients. Stir until parmesan is melted. Turn heat up slightly and simmer for 2 minutes. Adjust salt to taste.
  • Add pasta. Toss for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce thickens and is clinging to pasta instead of swimming on the base of the skillet (video shows this well). Use reserved pasta cooking water if required to thin the sauce out if it gets too thick.
  • Serve immediately, garnished with more parmesan and parsley if desired.

Recipe Notes:

1. Tomato Passata, known as Tomato Puree in America, is pureed strained tomatoes that is sold in tall bottles. It’s 100% tomato, no additives or flavourings. It’s smoother than crushed tomatoes and makes gorgeous thick tomato based sauces. In Australia, you’ll find it in the pasta section in supermarkets and it costs around the same as canned tomato. Passata is not the same as tomato paste which is a concentrate.
American canned Tomato Sauce (Hunts etc) is a suitable substitute, or your favourite tomato pasta sauce (use 1 cup). Canned crushed or finely diced tomato can also be used but you’ll need 1 x 400g/14oz can, add it first and cook down for 5 minutes before adding milk, cream etc.
2. The sauce thickness mostly comes from the passata so this recipe could actually be made with just milk, no cream, for a healthier alternative though you will miss the richness that cream brings to the sauce. You could also use evaporated milk, again for a healthier alternative. If you want to add richness to the sauce, add extra butter!
3. Don’t try this with store bought grated parmesan as most don’t melt properly in the sauce.
4. Stock powder brings more flavour to the sauce than just using salt. If you don’t have it, I would add an extra 1/4 – 1/2 cup parmesan.
5. ADD-IN SUGGESTIONS: Shrimp/prawns, BACON, pancetta, chicken, turkey, diced or sliced capsicum / bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, grated zucchini. For prawns/shrimp and whole chicken pieces (breast, thigh), cook it first then take it out, cut chicken then toss back in later with pasta. For chopped chicken, bacon, pancetta and vegetables, add them when the onion is partway cooked, then proceed with recipe. Stir through delicate vegetables like baby spinach into the sauce with the pasta.
Don’t go overboard with the add-ins otherwise you might not have enough sauce! 
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 284gCalories: 546cal (27%)
Keywords: Creamy tomato pasta, Creamy tomato sauce, Tomato cream sauce
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

Just like his Mama, he needs a creamy pasta fix every now and then too….

….. though I am happy to say his Mama doesn’t have this problem (Food Catching Chest Hair).

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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167 Comments

  1. Cathy says

    5 stars
    Add-in suggestion: Bacon or pancetta!
    Dozer is SO adorable.

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      YIKES! How on earth did I forgot THOSE??!! 🙀

      Reply

  2. Gillian DidierSerre says

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi, we love pasta with tomato the Canadian Italians call your sauce “MARIA ROSA and it’s always yummy.

    This was the cutest picture of DOZER to date!
    FYI we had friends over for dinner Tuesday night march13, and I made your red curry paste😋 plus I also used your Thai meatball recipe and made Thai chicken meatball curry using the paste it was a HOME run so thank you and keep those recipes coming Gillian x

    Reply

    • Nagi says

      I didn’t even know there was a real name for it!!! 😂 I just thought this was something I made up! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU MADE SO MANY OF MY RECIPES FOR YOUR FRIENDS, I’m so touched. Hugs to Luca! N x

      Reply

    • Gillian Didier Serre says

      Hi Nagi..yes I love your recipes alongwith the personal chit chat and updates on our favourite Pets..cheers have a great week Gillian xo.and Woof woof from Luca to Dozer 🐕👍

      Reply

    • Wynn says

      I agree! There are a lot of great photos of Dozer, but I’d thought that was the best I’ve seen so far, too. It’s very special. There needs to be a big, framed print of that one.

      And, that pasta is right up my alley too! I will make that just for myself sometime when my husband is out of town–he can’t understand pasta without meat. He’s too old to re-train, so he’ll just be deprived of that pleasure! 🙂

      Reply