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 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!”
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.
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!
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Fettucine Alfredo – also try this One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta
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Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!
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Browse all pasta recipes
Pasta with tomato cream sauce
Watch how to make it
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Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
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:
Nutrition Information:
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).
This will become a regular meal around here. Husband and kid approved! I used shells to make it more kid-friendly and added some chopped baby spinach (Frozen, added towards the end of sautéing the onions and garlic). Since I didn’t have heavy cream, I used half milk, half broth, and a gmfee tablespoons of mascarpone cheese. It was amazing and so easy.
Killer sauce!! This was absolutely delicious, my hubby and I both loved it and was super easy to make. The basil really adds flavor. We also added mushrooms and shrimp. Was yummy! Highly recommend making this.
Tastes just like a dish ordered recently from our favorite Italian place in Nashville. Did not have pancetta, chicken or shrimp so I used thick bacon and it was delectable! Thank you, Nagi!
Delicious, have made this a couple of times now. Love adding different vegetables or proteins that I have left in the fridge. Thank you for this recipe and for the detailed notes for adding extras in!
Needed to come up with something quick for our pumpkin red onion ravioli, had to sub in pecorino and left out onion, was delicious!
Hi, am about to try this recipe. Just wondering is it possible to use fresh tomatoes instead? If yes, what is the substitution amount?
SOOOOO GOOD!
Cooked many times. Absolutely delicious. Portions are perfect size. A regular go to dish.
Lovely, quick and easy
Tried this without the cream and my parmesan didn’t melt very well – came off the stove alright, but as it came to room temp it became very grainy. Might try w/a diff cheese next time.
Delicious!! My new favorite pasta sauce. Followed the recipe as written.
I tried this today but the cream curdled with the acidity from the tomato purée. How to avoid that?
Hi Ms. Nagi, is it okay to substitute nutritional yeast instead of parmesan?
The yeast won’t melt into the sauce like cheese so the texture will be quite different but it’s a good sub if you can’t have dairy – this one thickens from the passata so it should be thick enough without the cheese…let me know how it goes! N x
Hi Nagi, I tried this recipe today. It was absolutely awesome! My son loved it sooo much, he thanked me at least 100 times. All thanks goes it you!
Hi Nagi, I wanted to try this recipe today, but unfortunately found out too late that I have way too little parmesan. Im from the Netherlands and we measure everything by weight here, so thats why I only looked at that part of the recipe. The recipe says 30 grams of parmesan, but 3/4 cup of parmesan weighs way more than that. Perhaps you can edit it in your recipe 🤗. Im gonna try it out after buying more parmesan cause it looks delicious
Hi Aike – go with the weight as that is correct. I grate my parmesan with a microplane so it is much lighter than the pre grated type. N x
This was amazing, and so simple
I added a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes with the garlic and onion and would definitely recommend
This is utterly delicious!!
My neighbour gave us a huge packet of fresh tortellini (700g) and this recipe was the perfect amount for it. Although that was a lot of leftovers! After the sauce was done I stirred in quite a lot of baby spinach, then after it was wilted added the packet of cooked tortellini. Very yummy!
Really six stars: my super picky kid ate it!! Huzzah!!!
Really quick and easy too. You have saved me from a rut of boooooooring dinners!
(& Please give Dozer pets from me, he is so cute.)
Can I add beef mince? Would it taste ok?
I personally wouldn’t – I don’t think cream and pasatta would go well with beef. White meat would go well (chicken). I’ve made this sauce with prawns and it’s delicious!