This tomato butter pasta is such a simple recipe, but it always hits the spot!
This is one of those no-fuss pasta recipes that are just too good not to try. It’s no fuss or frills, but there’s something about it that’s so delicious. Follow me…
Grated Tomato Pasta Sauce
One of the key steps in this recipe is grating the tomatoes to form the sauce.
Why grate the tomatoes?
To be honest the grating of tomatoes is mostly about the ability to form a sauce using fresh tomatoes. Grating the tomatoes leaves you with the perfect texture for a sauce, and, you get the bonus of not needing to peel the tomatoes – the grater does it for you! Just discard the skin you get to it.
What kind of tomatoes to use?
The tomatoes make up a big bulk of the sauce, so try and get some nice ripe good quality tomatoes. Here I’ve used plum tomatoes which work perfectly, so do grab them if you can.
Process shots: weigh tomatoes (photo 1), begin grating on box grater (photo 2), carefully grate up until the point only the skin is left (photo 3), discard skin (photo 4).
Tomato Butter Pasta Sauce
Creating an emulsion
The tomatoes are obviously going to be fairly watery, and to form the sauce we need to blend them with the butter. You will form an emulsion by just simmering and stirring the two of them, but to help along you’ll want to toss in some starchy pasta water. The starch molecules will help create a glossy, ever-so-slightly creamy sauce. Just pour this in as needed after adding the pasta.
Extra goodies
Alongside the butter and tomatoes, I love frying off some garlic and chilli flakes, just for a gorgeous base flavour. I also love tossing in some fresh basil and parmesan alongside the pasta, just to really lift the whole dish.
Process shots: melt butter (photo 1), fry garlic and chilli flakes (photo 2), add tomatoes and seasoning (photo 3), toss in cooked pasta (photo 4), toss in basil (photo 5), toss in parmesan (photo 6).
Serving Tomato Butter Pasta
Once I’ve tossed in the parmesan, I love stirring in one final knob of butter, just to give the pasta a gorgeously glossy, buttery texture to finish. From there, just serve up with any leftover basil/parmesan and tuck in! I usually whip this up for a no-fuss and relatively quickly Lunch.
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this tomato butter pasta shall we?!
How to make Tomato Butter Pasta (Full Recipe & Video)
Tomato Butter Pasta
Equipment
- Large Pan & Wooden Spoon
- Large Pot & Tongs
- Box Grater & Bowl
- Fine Cheese Grater
Ingredients
- 9oz / 250g Spaghetti, or other long cut pasta
- 1lb / 500g Tomatoes (see notes)
- 4 tbsp / 2oz / 60g Butter
- 1/3 cup / 1oz / 30g freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 cloves of Garlic, finely diced
- handful of Fresh Basil, finely diced
- pinch of Chilli Flakes, to taste
- Salt & Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Use a box grater to grate each tomato into a bowl. Discard the skin when you get to it.
- Melt 3.5 tbsp butter in a large pan over medium heat (save the remaining 1/2 tbsp butter for later). Add in garlic & chilli flakes and fry for a couple of minutes. Pour in the tomatoes, generously season with salt & pepper and give it a good stir.
- Keep on a gentle simmer and occasionally stir for 15mins, or until sauce begins to thicken and emulsify with the butter.
- Meanwhile, place the pasta in heavily salted water and cook until al dente.
- Use tongs to transfer the pasta straight into the pan and toss to combine with the sauce. Toss in basil, then toss in parmesan, adding starchy pasta water from the pot to thin out the sauce as needed. If you go overboard with the pasta water, just continue to simmer & toss the pasta in the sauce until it thickens and clings around the pasta.
- Add in the final 1/2 tbsp butter and toss until melted. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly, then serve up with any extra basil/parmesan and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Your Private Notes:
Nutrition
Looking for more?
You’ll find plenty more delicious comfort food like this in my Debut Cookbook ‘Comfy’
For more similar recipes check out these beauties:
Tomato Pasta Recipes
- Pasta Pomodoro
- Creamy Tomato Pasta
- Tomato Mushroom Pasta
- Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta
- Tomato Spinach Pasta
If you loved this Tomato Butter Pasta Recipe then be sure to Pin it for later! Already made it or got a question? Give me a shout in the comments and pick up your free ecookbook along the way!
AMAZING. I made extra with chicken added and I still didn’t have leftovers haha. My 3 boys are picky eaters and EVERYONE had 3 plates (Hubby had 4). New favorite and shared with my mom. Thank you. This recipe is simple, easy, fast and just amazing. Will make again.
So great to hear, Samantha! Thanks so much for the review 🙂 C.
A huge hit at the table, so much so that there almost weren’t enough leftovers to send with our daughter for lunch the next day. And, FYI, this is one of those dishes that is even better the next day, so make sure you make enough for leftovers.
One small point, pretty sure that as written and for normal eaters this is closer to 4 servings than 2 (most pasta is 2 oz. / serving).
Thanks so much for the review, Jonathan! Glad to hear this went down well 🙂 C.
The best pasta meal I have ever had!! We loved it thank you so much!!
Great to hear, Neva! 🙂 C.
Made this last week and my hubby requested it today. It was so amazing, perfection. Thank you for sharing this. How far in advance could I grate the tomatoes?
So great to hear this went down well! I can’t say I’ve grated them ahead of time – my instinct is I probably wouldn’t go more than 24 hours tightly stored in the fridge, just to keep them as fresh as possible. But you can definitely experiment and see how you get on! C.
I have been waiting patiently for enough of my romas to ripen at once to try this recipe, so glad I did! This is unbelievably rich and light at the same time. Didn’t have any basil, and one of the family doesn’t eat parm, so we grated it into individual bowls, but this is the best tomato-based pasta I have had in a very long time. Thank you so much for sharing!
This is so awesome to read, Amanda! Glad it went down well 🙂 C.
One of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in a long time and so quick and easy. Definitely a keeper.
Thanks so much for the review! 🙂 C.
This is the best! Simple, delicious ingredients, beautifully prepared. This is everything we love at our house. Thank you!
Thanks so much for the review, Linda! 🙂 C.
This is going to become my go to recipe for a nice easy homemade dinner. My neighbor gives us tomatoes all throughout the summer and fall and I’m always trying to find a good recipe to use them all up. THIS IS IT. We had three really big juicy tomatoes and once they were grated, they were perfect for it. The sauce came together perfectly. I also had some diced onion in my fridge so I sweated that down and then cooked the garlic and chili flakes together. I added the onions back in when the tomatoes went in. I didn’t have basil but honestly, didn’t need it. This recipe is phenomenal and honestly, you can use this sauce in a lot of dishes I imagine. My mom requested I make this sauce to go with my lasagna recipe. Thank you so much!! This is going to become a weeknight go to!
This is so lovely to read! So happy the recipe went down well. Thanks so much for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Our new “go to”pasta, my wife’s favorite, is mine also. Sooooo easy to make, and so delicious. A winner in our house…
So lovely to hear, Denis! Thanks so much for the review 🙂 C.
Hubby loved this! I didn’t grate tomatoes but used tomato sauce. It’s what I had. I will make this again.
Thanks so much for the review, Mary! 🙂 C.