I have had the worst pasta cravings lately.
Really, it’s quite bad. My family doesn’t ever eat pasta at home. When we do, it’s one recipe: pasta salad. We cook up some dried pasta, toss it in olive oil and and balsamic vinegar, with veggies and cheese. My mom detests tomato sauce, and isn’t willing to make the other types of pasta sauces for fear of it being too time-consuming.
Don’t get me wrong; my mom makes really delicious food for us every day. But one day, suddenly, all I wanted was some spaghetti bolognese or fettuccine alfredo.
So, I took matter into my own hands. I bought some dried Banza Chickpea Pasta Rotini from the grocery store, looked up some recipes for tomato sauce, and got to it. (I also made an alfredo sauce during this craving period, the recipe is in my previous post!)
A lot of the tomato sauce recipes I found called for sauteed onions or celery, with a plethora of spices that I did not have, and had to be cooked on the stovetop for close to an hour. They were also always in large portions.
Although I’m sure they would have all been delicious: NO THANK YOU. I am far too lazy to saute onions and wait an hour for my sauce. As well, I didn’t want to make a large portion, as I would be the only one eating the sauce at my house.
So, I used bits and pieces from various tomato/marinara/pizza/pasta sauce recipes, and threw them all together to make the easiest version of the recipe I could. After making and heating the sauce, I poured it all over my chickpea rotini pasta, threw in some leftover cauliflower, shrimp, and bell peppers, and indulged. It was a total shot-in-the-dark attempt, but it worked out pretty well.
The craving was satisfied.
The recipe below is my adaptation of the internet’s tomato sauce recipes. It uses ingredients that I had in my home, and took me less than 5 minutes from start to ready-to-serve.
The best part is, it tastes just like restaurant tomato sauce, but it’s 100% au naturel. In addition, the main ingredient is fresh tomatoes, making this sauce very healthy, high in vitamins and fibre. It is so quick and tasty, I will never be buying jarred tomato sauce again.
This recipe is for a single-serve, and requires a blender. After boiling, it makes about a cup of tomato sauce; just enough for one person’s serving of pasta. The thickness of the sauce can be manipulated depending on how long you boil the sauce before serving. For use on a pizza, boil on low heat for about 5 minutes longer, to remove more water from the sauce (pizza sauce should have less water so the pizza doesn’t get soggy).
5 MINUTE TOMATO SAUCE
Prep Time: 3 min Cook Time: 2 mins Total Time: 5 mins
SERVINGS: 1 SERVING
SERVING SIZE: about 1 CUP
CATEGORY: SAUCE
CUISINE: ITALIAN
CALORIES: 60 KCAL
A quick, easy, single serve tomato sauce that can be served in just 5 minutes, using ingredients you probably have in your fridge. After prep, make sure to heat before serving.
INGREDIENTS
– 2 large ripe tomatoes*
– 3/4 tsp dried basil
– 3/4 tsp dried oregano
– 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
– 1 clove garlic
– salt and pepper, to taste
– 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (optional)**
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Add all ingredients into a blender or food processor.
2. Blend until mostly smooth; mixture should remain a little chunky.
3. Remove from blender, and store in sealed container. For best results, let sauce sit for a couple hours to let flavors blend.
4. To serve, heat sauce in a saucepan until boiling, and add salt and pepper to taste. For use on a pizza, boil for about 5 minutes longer on low heat, to remove excess water.
Serve immediately on top of your favorite pasta, or spread over prepared pizza dough.
RECIPE NOTES
This sauce makes enough to coat about 1 1/2 cups cooked pasta, or two 8-inch pizzas.
*Fresh tomatoes may be substituted with 1/4 cup tomato paste + 1 cup water
**Adding the olive oil makes the sauce much richer, but is not necessary. I did not add olive oil the first two times I made this sauce, and it turned out fine.
5 MINUTE TOMATO SAUCE NUTRITION FACTS Amount Per Serving (1 CUP) (no olive oil)
Calories 60 Total Fat 0.9g
Saturated Fat 0.3g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 13mg
Total Carbohydrates 12.4g
Dietary Fibre 4.2g
Sugar 6.6g
Protein 2.6g
If you have any suggestion or improvements to the recipe, comment below! I would love to see your creations 🙂
