Easy Pasta Sauce – make it with fresh tomatoes for the best-tasting pasta sauce. Gorgeous color, and bursting with flavor, it makes your pasta sing!
But hey, so what if it’s called “Pasta” sauce…. It’s also perfect for your home-made pizza, or Eggplant Parmesan, roasted vegetables, or simply as a dipping sauce for your favorite snacks… like breadsticks, or batter-fried mushrooms…..
Hmmm…. maybe you can make a big batch and stash some away in the freezer fora quick ‘go-to’ on a busy day.
Super-Easy – Start to Finish
Super-easy, from start to finish: plan it right and in 30-40 min, without too much hands-on work, get ready to serve your made-from-scratch pasta sauce! No kidding!
Did someone say it takes hours of slaving over a stove to make a tasty pasta sauce? Nah…. don’t believe it! In years past, without our modern equipment…. perhaps it did take hours. Well, not any more, thank goodness. Microwave ovens, food processors, pressure cookers…. we are so lucky to have these modern wonders that simplify our lives in so many ways.
Cook the tomatoes and onions in the microwave
Chop the tomatoes and microwave for a few minutes until they are cooked (See Recipe Notes for stove-top cooking directions). Meanwhile, chop the onions and keep them ready to pop into the microwave with a bit of oil, salt and sugar as soon as the tomatoes are done. That will take about 5 min or so. Gather up the seasonings while the onions are cooking.
Pulse the cooked onions and tomatoes in a food processor or blender, until you get a slightly coarse sauce texture. You could also use an immersion blender, or a manual food-mill to do this, if you wish. Transfer the sauce to a glass/ceramic microwave safe bowl, add the seasonings and simmer gently for 8-10 min to allow the flavors to blend. That’s it!
By the way….
If you plan to have this sauce with pasta, put a pot of water to boil after you start cooking the onions. That way, the water will be boiling and ready for you to start cooking your pasta just around the time you start simmering the sauce. Perfect planning! Your pasta will be steaming hot and ready to meet-and-greet its dearest friend, the bold and beautiful, bright red pasta sauce!
Sauce is Packed with Micro-nutrients
This pasta sauce is loaded with vital micro-nutrients that support your well-being in various ways. Lots of lycopene, along with Vitamin C, Vitamin K from the tomatoes; Quercetin and sulfur compounds from onions, and a plethora of vitamins and phytochemicals from the various seasonings.
However, several of these nutrients are heat-sensitive and get destroyed during long cooking times. So, that sauce which used to take hours of slaving over a stove in the past…. well, maybe it actually wasn’t very nutrient-rich, no matter how wonderful it might have looked and tasted.
Short cooking time – less nutrient loss and better flavor
The fairly short cooking time needed for making this pasta sauce will prevent extensive nutrient loss. So… Faster and more nutrient-dense than traditionally made pasta sauce… how amazing is that?!
What about flavor, you might wonder….? Isn’t long, slow simmering supposed to bring out all the flavors of the ingredients and make a rich-tasting sauce?
As a scientist, I have a slightly different take on this idea… Sure, some simmering is needed to help blend the flavors. With excessively long cooking times, though, some of these flavor substances are either destroyed or simply evaporate away.
Your whole house might get filled with the wonderful aroma of the simmering sauce. Well, why do you think that is? These aromatic substances, from the various ingredients you added to your sauce, simply evaporate away from the sauce and into the surrounding air. But wait… doesn’t that also mean that they are no longer present “inside” your sauce?!
Hmmm….. Still think long simmering is a great idea? I most certainly don’t!
Special Diets
This easy pasta sauce recipe is vegetarian and vegan, gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free.
If you wish to make a “no-onion-no-garlic” version, simply omit these ingredients. Of course, the flavor will be different if you omit these, but it still tastes amazing. To compensate, you might want to amp up the seasonings a little: a bit more crushed red pepper and a bit more black pepper should help.
So… go ahead, put those fresh tomatoes you just bought to good use…. make this easy pasta sauce. I suspect you might never be truly happy with store-bought sauce after this!
Serve it on pasta, make home-made pizza, serve as a tasty dipping sauce for bread-sticks or other munchies… It’s so very versatile, and freezes beautifully too, just in case you’re thinking about making a big batch.
If you like Pasta and Italian food, please do check out these recipes that I posted recently :
Flavorful and colorful meal with spinach pasta
Colorful Pasta with Spinach and Edamame
Share with friends, do leave a review and rating…. much appreciated.
Enjoy!
Easy Pasta Sauce – Make It With Fresh Tomatoes
Equipment
- Electric food processor/chopper/blender, immersion blender; if not available, a manual food mill is OK too
- Microwave oven – if not available, you can make this sauce on the stove-top (will take a bit longer)
Ingredients
- 4 cups Tomatoes – chopped medium Roma preferred – need about 4-5 medium – diced medium
- 1/2 cup Onion – chopped finely White/yellow preferred; red onions taste good, but darkens the bright red color of the resulting sauce
- 1/2 tsp Garlic – minced/finely chopped about 1-2 small-medium cloves
- 1/2 tsp Oil I prefer peanut oil; any mild-flavored edible oil is OK
- 1 1/2 tsp Olive oil Extra Virgin preferred; add at the very end – do not heat extra virgin olive oil for more than a couple of minutes.
- 3/4 tsp Salt divided into two portions – 1/4 tsp + 1/2 tsp; adjust later – as per taste preference
- 1/2 tsp Sugar divided into two portions – 1/4 tsp each
- 1/8 tsp Black pepper – freshly ground preferred add more if you like (up to 1/4 tsp total)
- 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder (Cayenne) adjust as desired
- 1/2 tsp Fennel powder
- 1 tsp Dried basil leaves
- 1 leaf Bay leaf torn into 2-3 pieces
- 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
- 6-8 leaves Fresh Basil leaves (optional) add hand-torn leaves at the end, just before serving.
Instructions
- These directions are for making the sauce using the microwave oven. For stove-top directions, please see Recipe Notes.Place tomatoes on a glass/ceramic microwave-safe dinner plate. Microwave on high power for 2 minutes, then on medium power (40-50% power) for another 2-3 min. Note: For stove-top directions, see Recipe Notes for details.
- Remove the plate from the microwave and set aside to cool for 8-10 min.
- While the tomatoes are resting, dice the onions.
- Place the onions in a microwave safe glass/ceramic bowl and microwave for 2 min at high power.
- Meanwhile, peel and chop the garlic. I like using a silicone garlic peeler to effortlessly peel the garlic (shown in the picture) – all you have to do is place the garlic cloves inside the silicone tube and roll firmly on the countertop. Now simply pull out the peeled garlic – so easy! (The peels are stuck on the inside of the tube.)
- The onions will have become translucent and decreased in volume, and the edges will have just started browning.Add the garlic to the partially cooked onions, drizzle with a few drops of oil ( from the 1/2 tsp portion) and a pinch of sugar; microwave on hi for 2-3 min.
- The onions and garlic should look a little brown on the edges.
- Transfer the cooked tomatoes, onion and garlic to a blender or food processor (or chopper)
- Pulse a few times to a slightly coarse sauce texture.
- Transfer the sauce to a microwave safe glass/ceramic bowl. Add the seasonings and a few drops of oil ( remaining from the 1/2 tsp portion.
- Stir to mix; cover and microwave on hi for 1 min, then simmer on medium-hi power (50-60%) for 6-8 min. Add Italian seasoning and olive oil; stir, cover and rest for a couple of min before serving.Optional: Add hand-torn leaves of fresh basil, if available.
- Pasta Sauce is ready to serve.. about 1 1/2 cups of thick sauce.If you prefer a thinner sauce, add a little boiling-hot water and stir.
- Shown served on Farfalle (Bow-tie) with sauteed vegetables, with extra sauce on the side.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Stove-top cooking (without microwave):
- Place chopped tomatoes in a medium (2-3 quart/liter size) heavy-bottom saucepan.
- Add 2 tbsp water, and cook on high for 1 minute then simmer on low for 8-10 min, until tomatoes are soft. Stir every few min to prevent burning at the bottom.
- Meanwhile, heat 1/2 tsp oil in a small, frying pan (non-stick preferred ), add chopped onions and saute on medium heat for 3-4 min, till they become translucent.
- Add garlic and saute for 2-3 min longer until edges begin to brown.
- Add the sauteed onion/garlic to the cooked tomatoes, stir and transfer to a food processor/chopper or blender.
- If you prefer, you can use an immersion blender to avoid having to transfer the sauce back and forth: from sauce-pan to blender, then back to sauce-pan).
- If an electric blender is not available, you can also do this with a manual food mill.
- Pulse a few times to a coarse-textured sauce.
- Transfer back to the sauce-pan in which you cooked the tomatoes, add remaining seasonings (do NOT add olive oil at this stage), and simmer for 8-10 min.
- Stir in olive oil, and hand-torn fresh basil leaves, if using, and rest for a couple of min before serving.
Storing Leftovers:
Refrigerate in glass jar/container:- Consume within 3-4 days
- Sauce should hold flavor for about 6-8 weeks, possibly longer.
- To thaw
- Remove lid, cover with a vented lid and microwave on 20-30% power for 4-5 min till softened.
- Stir to break up remaining ice crystals and heat in a glass/ceramic microwave-safe bowl till almost boiling.
Looks awesome. Fennel is an ingredient I have never tried in pizza sauce, will try next time.
Love pasta. Will definitely try this way of making the sauce.
Always love an amazing pasta recipe! 💕
Glad to know you like it, Ashwini. Thanks!
I like to boil the tomatoes first and then mash them. Everything else is pretty much the same!
Great! Even with so many different ways to make pasta sauce, some things don’t change much, do they?!
Thanks for posting your thoughts and for the 5 star rating, Ashwini! Really appreciate it!