Easy, Vegan 4 Ingredient Tomato Pasta Sauce
Move over marinara, there’s a new tomato pasta sauce in town, and she’s vegan, full of body, and comes with a spicy chilli kick! Enjoy this addictive sauce over your favourite pasta, doused in (vegan) Parmesan and plenty of olive oil.
Welcome to the Lockdown Chow Down.
Join me (almost) daily as we reconnect with one of life’s most simple pleasures, food!
This recipe can be viewed as a cook along on the Culinary Cartel Instagram, by clicking here, or by viewing the “Two Pasta Sauces” highlight on Instagram stories. I will always love you marinara, but it’s time for me to see other pasta sauces. It’s not you, it’s me.
My pasta sauces are perfect for when you simply can’t be bothered to hang around waiting on a marinara sauce to slowly simmer itself into deliciousness.
Usually I find pasta lovers fall into two camps, the tomato basers and cream saucers. Today we will look at my two star players in these categories.
As most cream sauces require having cream on hand, I am going to show you an epic cashew cream sauce, that just so happens to be vegan. My tomato sauce is a winner in that it requires the most basic of ingredients: good olive oil, garlic and cherry tomatoes. If I’m cooking tomato pasta I am going with this jammy, gooey, tomatoey sauce over marinara any day.
Quick, vegan, delicious
I can’t tell you how many times these quick sauces have saved me getting home late and tired from work. From start to table they come together in 30 minutes flat. I throw the ingredients on after a long day, pull off a super speedy shower, shouting instructions to my husband to “stir this” and “watch that”. I emerge squeaky clean, enrobed in my favourite fluffy gown, to pull the team over the home stretch. These pastas would be very at home at a casual dinner party, but I enjoy them best after a long day, horizontal on the couch watching Friends, with a glass of wine in hand.
Each of these dishes contain 4 simple ingredients (excluding salt and pepper), with the option to customise the final dish to your preferences.
Customising
Add chilli to your tomato based sauce for a nice kick, or even cooked chicken or bacon in at the end.
If you try this recipe, let us know how it goes! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag your photo #theculinarycartel and #lockdownchowdown on Instagram so we can see what you come up with. Happy cooking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this gluten-free?
This dish is gluten-free! Enjoy!
Easy, Vegan 4 Ingredient Tomato Pasta Sauce
- Total Time: 30 Minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Move over marinara, there’s a new tomato pasta sauce in town, and she’s vegan, full of body, and comes with a spicy chilli kick! Enjoy this addictive sauce over your favourite pasta, doused in (vegan) Parmesan and plenty of olive oil.
Ingredients
- 800g cherry tomatoes
- 2–4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I adore garlic, but use as much as you like)
- 1/3–1/2 cup good olive oil
- 1/2–1 cup Parmesan (replace with vegan cheese if desired)
- 1 tsp chilli flakes or sliced chilli (optional)
Instructions
- Place a frying pan, big enough to fit your tomatoes in one even layer, on the stove and turn the heat to medium-high. Add enough oil to coat the base of the pan in a 1mm layer and add the tomatoes, making sure they lie in one layer on the base of the pan to cook evenly. There is no need to wait for the pan to come to temperature.
- Cook the tomatoes, stirring occasionally until they blister, dehydrate, and start to look a bit like raisins. Should the tomatoes start to stick and burn, turn the heat down slightly. This should take about 25 minutes.
- While the tomatoes are cooking, cook your pasta according to the packet instructions. Before you drain the pasta be sure to save 1 cup of the starchy cooking water.
- 5 minutes before serving add the minced garlic and (optional) chilli. Cook this for 2 minutes. At the same time, gently start pressing down on any still whole cherry tomatoes with a spatula, to burst them open.
- Once the garlic has cooked out, add ½ cup of pasta water and stir this through the sauce. The starchy water will help thicken the sauce and help it cling onto the pasta.
- Season the sauce with salt and pepper and turn off the heat.
- Add your pasta to the sauce, and toss it through to get evenly coated. Should the sauce look a little dry at this point, feel free to add a little more pasta water.
- Category: Mains
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 245kcal
- Sugar: 5.29g
- Sodium: 126.96mg
- Fat: 21.88g
- Saturated Fat: 4.15g
- Unsaturated Fat: 16.9g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 8.6g
- Fiber: 2.43g
- Protein: 5.39g
- Cholesterol: 6.73mg
