This tomato butter pasta is such a simple recipe, but it always hits the spot!
Reader, Lauryn says: ‘I think this is the best pasta I have ever eaten. I will make this when I want to impress guests, or when I need a dinner that will make me experience food joy. Simple, but fantastic. 10/10 ★★★★★’
Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce
This recipe is an awesome excuse to use up some fresh tomatoes, and one of the key steps in this recipe is actually grating them on a box grater.
Why grate the 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 when you get to it.
What kind of tomatoes should I use?
The tomatoes make up a big bulk of the sauce, so try and get some nice ripe good good-quality tomatoes. Here I’ve used plum tomatoes, which work perfectly, so do grab them if you can. Regular vine-ripened tomatoes will work just fine though.
Top Tip
When looking for ripe tomatoes, check it is fully coloured and has a little squeeze to it. It should also come off the vine with ease.
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 Sauce
The butter makes up a good bulk of the sauce, so just like the tomatoes, make sure you’re using a good quality butter! We’re Lurpak people in this house, but follow your tastebuds.
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 quick 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’
Tomato Butter Pasta FAQ
Some readers have had success in the comments with a can of good-quality tomatoes, so I’m sure it’ll still be delicious if you don’t have fresh tomatoes.
If you don’t like spice at all, you can leave out the chilli flakes, yes.
I imagine grilled chicken or sauce would go perfectly in this dish!
For more similar recipes check out these beauties:
How can I make this for a party of 6? It looks so good
At the top of the recipe card you’ll find the servings toggle. Just slide that to 6 and it’ll automatically change the quantities 🙂 C.
I had a pound of farmers market tomatoes and made this and WOW! It was by far one of the easiest and flavorful sauces I’ve ever made. I like it better than a thick marinara. I added a bit too much salt so will cut that back next time but thank you for this recipe!
So great to hear this went down well! C.
Simple and delicious, kids loved it.
Great to hear, Megan! 🙂 C.
So good. Made this tonight for dinner with a side of steamed broccoli. We loved it.
Great to hear, Kristyn! Thanks for the review 🙂 C.
This was amazing! I’ll admit, I substituted a can of crushed tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes. However, it was still divine! Rave reviews from the fam. Thank you! Next time, I’ll suck it up and use fresh tomatoes.
Ah that’s still great to hear it works well with crushed tomatoes! Thanks for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
This was excellent made as directed, my husband loved it!!! This will definitely be in our meal rotation.
Great to hear, Edith! Thanks for the review! C.
Fabulous, easy to make and very satisfying.
Great to hear!! 🙂 C.
Would a can of crushed tomatoes be an acceptable substitution? Perhaps draining them?
You could give it a go! No need to drain them, the water will reduce over the 15 mins of simmering 🙂 C.
I used a can of crushed tomatoes tonight and it turned out amazing!
I have a Pinterest board for recipes that my husband loves. He asked to have this recipe put on it. He’s a huge pasta fan and is already talking about when to have it next. Thank you.
That’s so great to hear, Mary! Thanks so much for popping back for a review 🙂 C.
Wow, I’m neither a review person nor a recipe follower, but somehow I did all the things you said to do and this is the only thing I ever want to eat ♥️ Plus my picky eater teen chimed in and said that this was perfection, and we all loved the inclusion of red pepper flakes and garlic.
Also I’ve used my box grater for many other veggies, but the tomato idea is genius. Cheers!
Ah that’s so awesome to hear! Glad the recipe went down well with everyone and thank you for the review 🙂 C.