Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce

$4.23 recipe / $1.06 serving
by Beth Moncel
4.84 from 48 votes
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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.

Overhead view of Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce and toasted breadcrumbs in a bowl with a black spoon and a black fork

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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! :)

A forkful of Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce being lifted out of the bowl, side view.

Recipe adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce.

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Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce

4.84 from 48 votes
Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce uses five simple pantry ingredients to make an incredibly rich and delicious sauce, perfect for any weeknight.
Pasta with butter tomato sauce and toasted breadcrumbs with utensils.
Servings 4
Prep 5 minutes
Cook 45 minutes
Total 50 minutes

Ingredients

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)
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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

*I used whole peeled tomatoes “in heavy juice”

Nutrition

Serving: 1ServingCalories: 468.2kcalCarbohydrates: 61.73gProtein: 10.88gFat: 19.13gSodium: 1023.58mgFiber: 4.08g
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Want a version of this 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce, but with meat? Check out The Best Weeknight Pasta Sauce

Overhead view of a bowl full of Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce, with fork and spoon on the side.

How to Make Butter Tomato Sauce – Step by Step Photos

Toast Bread Crumbs in the pan with a wooden spatula

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.

A spoonful of untoasted breadcrumbs held near the skillet of toasted breadcrumbs to show the color difference

For reference, here is a spoonful of the untoasted bread crumbs next to the toasted bread crumbs. (sorry about the blur).

Butter and minced garlic in the skillet

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).

Can of Whole Peeled Tomatoes

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.

Add Whole Peeled Tomatoes to the skillet with the butter and garlic

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.

Simmered Tomato Sauce after 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.

Add Pasta to Butter Tomato Sauce in the skillet

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.

Finished Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce in the skillet, some pasta twirled around a wooden pasta fork.

Finally, top it with some of those delicious toasted bread crumbs! (I added some chopped parsley just to give the photos some color.)

Pasta with 5 Ingredient Butter Tomato Sauce in a bowl, some twirled around a black fork, a black spoon sitting in back.

Then DIG IN.

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Comments

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  1. This is one of my favorite recipes! It always seems to turn out right. It’s not too heavy, and the bread crumbs add such a lovely dimension to the dish. Love your blog by the way! You’ve helped my family and me sooo much.

  2. Hi Beth! I was just wondering how this dish could be altered to use fresh tomatoes. Do you have any suggestions or advice that could help me? Thank you! Your website is great!

    1. Hi Ciara, I haven’t tried this with fresh tomatoes, but I suspect you may need to simmer it a bit longer. Also, the canned tomatoes are peeled, so you may want to blanch and peel the fresh tomatoes before making sauce with them.

  3. This was amazing. Will be our new go-to for pasta sauce because it’s so easy and tasty. Breadcrumbs were an excellent touch. Thank you for sharing.

  4. I made this tonight and IT WAS AWESOME!!!! The tomatoes were hard to break so I ended up using a potato masher which worked perfectly. One of the best tomato sauces I’ve ever had/made!!!

  5. I LOVE this recipe. It’s simple and super easy to make. I added some ground beef, onions and angel hair pasta. I also made the bread crumbs, which took the pasta to a whole different level. I increased the servings to six instead of four, so I can have left overs every night when I come home from work. I will definitely make this recipe again. Thank you, Beth!!!! :-)

  6. Best pasta sauce recipe I’ve ever tried! I love your recipes, Beth, because they are simple and OH SO adaptable to one’s preferences. Even besides that, they are excellent as written. I read the comments before attempting it because your readers always have great suggestions and I ended up doing a bit of a “toppings bar” with grated mozz., chopped Italian parsley, fresh ground pepper, red pepper flakes and the seasoned breadcrumbs.

    I don’t understand the people who complained it was bland – you know your preferences better than Beth.

  7. Made this tonight. It was ridiculously good. All three kids ate it without complaint. Which is better than the usually 33% refusing to eat!

  8. Wow. Just made it and it taste exactly like the tomato sauce they make at the Italian place down the street. Also my boyfriend loves mean so i used some left over ribs and it works amazing with it.

  9. Excellent, thanks! The second time I made it I added a bit of Maggi (I add it to everything) and some cooking cream, not better than the posted recipe, just a little different.

  10. Made it tonight and loved it! We forgot the bread crumbs but the buttery flavor of the sauce was great. Felt much more satisfying than a jar of sauce on pasta. I didn’t miss the meat at all in this meal.

  11. Planning on making this tonight but I have big meat eaters at my house. Would meatballs work? Without a ton of sauce and all that butter I wasn’t sure if they would really work. If not…..any other suggestions?

    1. I’d just cook the meatballs separately and then combine the sauce and meatballs at the end after they’re both finished cooking.

    2. I cooked some ground beef and an onion beforehand, then added everything else and let it simmer together as directed. It was amazing. No need to cook everything separately – it just adds even more layers of deliciousness to let it marry together the whole time. =)

  12. Somewhere I found a recipe, that resembles this one for the tomato sauce. It contains a lot of butter (70 gr), can 450 gr tomatoes and one whole peeled onion and salt. Put everything in a pan and after is start to boil, uncover and simmer on very low heat for 45 min! Take out the onion and eat with pasta and parmesan! It’s the best!