I hate to sound hyperbolic, but this 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce is probably the last red sauce recipe I’ll ever need. It’s ridiculously easy and still “lick the spoon” good. No, more like “scoop spoonfuls into your mouth sans pasta” good. Or, “I might have to make this into a soup” good.
It’s All About the Butter
How is it so good? If you’re a fan of plain buttered pasta with salt and pepper, you already know that it’s all about the butter. Butter gives this sauce a delicate creaminess, compliments the sweetness of the tomatoes, and provides a little bit of body to keep the sauce from feeling too thin or light. It’s just perfect, really. So yes, real butter is mandatory for this recipe.
The Secret is in the Salting
Also, I’m a huge advocate of salting food properly. Salt doesn’t just make food salty, it pronounces individual flavors and helps your tongue differentiate subtleties in flavors that would otherwise be lost.
Too much salt is bad, obviously, for both flavor and health. But, if you salt your food at the very end you’ll get that much needed punch of flavor and still a lot less salt than you’d be getting from pre-packaged or restaurant foods.
This sauce is the perfect example of this concept. When I added the final salt to this sauce after it had simmered for a half hour, the flavor went from “Yeah, that’s tomato sauce.” to “WHOA. Super rich, slightly sweet, and utterly divine.” So don’t judge the sauce until you add your final salt. It changes everything.
Add Toasted Breadcrumbs
What about those deliciously toasty breadcrumbs? They’re an easy, inexpensive, and vegetarian alternative to Parmesan. It’s best to make them out of old stale bread because A) you get better texture and B) you’re saving that bread from being thrown out. See my tutorial on How to Make Breadcrumbs.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any old bread today so I used the store bought bread crumbs that I had in my pantry. They’re still pleasantly flavorful and give the pasta a wonderful texture. The next time you’re about to chuck a piece of stale bread, toss it into the freezer instead (properly wrapped and sealed, of course) and save it for the next time you want to make some super awesome toasted bread crumbs! :)
Recipe adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce.
Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce
Servings 4Ingredients
TOASTED BREAD CRUMBS (optional)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs ($0.24)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.02)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked Pepper ($0.05)
PASTA WITH BUTTER TOMATO SAUCE
- 8 oz. pasta ($0.50)
- 4 Tbsp salted butter ($0.31)
- 3 cloves garlic ($0.24)
- 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes* ($2.43)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste) ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
Instructions
- To make the toasted bread crumbs, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add the bread crumbs, salt, oregano, and some freshly cracked pepper. Cook and stir the bread crumbs continuously until they achieve a deep golden color. Remove them from the skillet and let cool until ready to use.
- To make the sauce, mince the garlic and add it to a large deep skillet with the butter. Sauté the garlic in the butter over medium heat for about a minute, or just until it becomes fragrant. Add the can of tomatoes, along with all the juices, and some freshly cracked pepper. Break the tomatoes up into a few chunks with your spoon (they should be soft and easily crushed).
- Stir the ingredients in the skillet, then let it come up to a simmer. Once it reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low and let it continue to simmer, without a lid, for about 30 minutes. Stir the sauce occasionally as it simmers, breaking the tomatoes into smaller pieces as you stir.
- While the sauce simmers, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Save about 1/2 cup of the starchy cooking water before draining the pasta in a colander.
- After simmering for 30 minutes, the sauce should have thickened and become slightly less acidic and slightly more sweet. Season the sauce with a final 1/2 tsp of salt (or to your liking). Add the cooked and drained pasta to the sauce and toss to coat. Use some of the reserved starchy cooking water to loosen the pasta if it becomes too dry. Top the pasta and sauce with a generous sprinkle of toasted bread crumbs, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Want a version of this 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce, but with meat? Check out The Best Weeknight Pasta Sauce.
How to Make Butter Tomato Sauce – Step by Step Photos
To make the toasted bread crumbs, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, add 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp oregano, and some freshly cracked pepper. Stir and cook the bread crumbs until they become a deep golden color (this happens quickly), then remove from the heat. They should look like damp sand or brown sugar. Let the bread crumbs cool until you’re ready to use them.
For reference, here is a spoonful of the untoasted bread crumbs next to the toasted bread crumbs. (sorry about the blur).
On to the amazing sauce… Start with 4 Tbsp butter and 3 cloves of minced garlic in a large, deep skillet. Sauté the garlic in the butter over medium heat for about a minute, or just until the garlic becomes really fragrant (you don’t want it to brown).
Then add one 28oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes to the skillet. I didn’t realize I bought tomatoes “in heavy juice with basil”, but I didn’t find the basil made much difference in the end flavor. The heavy juice was nice, though. It created an instant sauce that didn’t need much thickening.
Break the tomatoes up into smaller pieces as you stir the tomatoes into the butter and garlic. The tomatoes will be soft and easily crushed with a spoon. Finally, add some freshly cracked pepper. Let the sauce come up to a simmer without a lid. Once it reaches a simmer, turn the heat down to medium-low and let it gently simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir occasionally as it simmers and continue to break the tomatoes up into smaller pieces. The sauce will slowly sweeten as it simmers and become less acidic, but the real flavor comes when you add a final 1/2 tsp of salt (more or less depending on your taste buds). Taste and season accordingly.
While the sauce is simmering away, cook 8oz. pasta according to the directions. Before draining it in a colander, save some of the starchy pasta cooking water because it’s great for loosening up the sauce if it gets too dry when you add the pasta. Stir the drained pasta into the sauce.
Finally, top it with some of those delicious toasted bread crumbs! (I added some chopped parsley just to give the photos some color.)
Then DIG IN.
I may be the odd man out but I found the recipe as written rather bland. I had to up the seasonings A LOT(more salt and pepper,garlic powder,onion powder,crushed red pepper and fresh basil)! Plus I added sauteed chicken and shrimp because the family would not have eaten it without a protein. But to be fair I change almost every recipe I come across and my son ate two bowls. Also I used both garlic and onion because of the comments.
I didn’t have time to simmer it as long, and I also used a can of crushed tomatos (it was what I had, already open in the fridge) and it was STILL delicious. I will make this again! And I will try it as directed :)
I love the idea of using breadcrumbs as a kind of “parmesan.” Normally our bread goes moldy before it goes stale, but I do like to save the end pieces for breadcrumbs (since they aren’t as good for sandwiches, imo).
Thanks for the recipe!
My family of four ate every bite and liked it a lot! I did make meatballs on the side to complete the dish.
This is maybe the fourth or fifth recipe I’ve tried from this site and my ultra-picky family liked them all. We especially like the lime cilantro (culantro) chicken.
I have lots of diced tomatoes in my pantry. Do you think they would work instead of whole?
They might not be as tender as the whole tomatoes. I’ve heard that the ripest tomatoes are saved for the cans of “whole” tomatoes, while the less ripe are used for cans of diced tomatoes. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do find their texture to be a bit different.
I used half diced tomatoes and half crushed, and it turned out great. =)
Is there any way to use fresh, peeled tomatoes in this recipe? My tomato plants are overloaded and I’m looking for ways to use them. This sauce looks yummy!
I think Marcella Hazan’s version uses fresh tomatoes. It doesn’t look like the technique is much different. :)
I’ve been using Marcella Hazan’s version for many years now and we love it. She doesn’t use garlic, but I do. She also cuts a small white onion in half and simmers it in the sauce and removes it at the end. Also, she uses canned tomatoes. I top with parmesan, not bread crumbs but might do that in the future.
I have made Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce and I really liked it. She uses an onion, no garlic. I love your idea of using garlic instead of the onion. I’m going to have to give your version a try! Your first photo of the pasta is totally crave-inducing!
I definitely want to try the onion version, too. I bet it’s nice and sweet!
I’ve been a huge fan of the original recipe for a couple of years now and agree that the butter just takes it over the edge. My pro tip for days when I’m using an inexpensive jarred sauce is to simmer it on the stove and add some butter–it can take the edge off of the over-sweetness or acidity that I find with the jarred stuff.
Love the idea of adding breadcrumbs to this!
I discovered Marcella Hazan’s recipe some years ago. I have always made it with a whole onion but now I will try the garlic instead! Lately, I have been making this without the butter because hubby and I “went plant based” three months ago. He ALMOST had a heart attack so we are very serious about trying to reverse his heart disease according to Dr. Greger of nutritionfacts.org. and the book “How Not To Die.” Yikes, did I say that? It was a total shock.
I appreciate your plant based recipes so much. I have made your Vegetable and Lentil soup many times. It is delicious and I continue to experiment with lots of your other recipes.
Of course, this tomato sauce is not as good without the butter but that’s a small price to pay for having my hubby by my side for years to come. We are now very outspoken about heart disease and preach to anyone who will listen. It might save a life, right?
I will certainly make some bread crumbs for it, also! What a good idea since we are not eating Parmesan, darn it.
(I do sneak some once in a while just for myself.)
Have you tried plant based butters like Earth Balance? There’s also a really awesome butter made out of cashews from Miyoko’s Creamery.
This reminds me of Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce which I make often.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015178-marcella-hazans-tomato-sauce
It’s amazing that such a simple and inexpensive group of ingredients can come together to produce something so incredibly delicious! Thanks for reminding me. I’m a recent subscriber to your blog and love it. Keep up the great inspiration.
Yes, her sauce was the inspiration for this! :) (I linked to it on the recipe card and in the intro to make sure she got credit).
Yum. Marcella’s sauce has got to be in the top three most iconic recipes in the world of food writers. Maybe even in first place, fame-wise. I like it with the onion, though.
Will this keep in the freezer do you think?
I like to freeze pasta with sauce sometimes. It does get a tad bit more dry, but still enjoyable.
I looooove this recipe but personally can’t live without the onion in it (I have tried)… you reminded me to make this again tonight as I haven’t bought groceries and have everything on hand. AMAZING
Oh gosh, I think I just immediately changed my mind about what to make for dinner.
Could I use panko bread crumbs for this? Or would you recommend using regular?
I think panko would work well, too. They have great texture that I think would be closer to homemade bread crumbs. I’m sure they toast faster, though, since they are less dense.