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Home Collections Quick Dinner Recipes

Creamy Tomato Pasta

By Nagi Maehashi
161 Comments
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Published14 Mar '18 Updated28 Jun '25
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Pink pasta! Spaghetti tossed with a creamy tomato sauce that’s totally slurp worthy, this Creamy Tomato Pasta is silky and indulgent tasting but the tomato cream sauce doesn’t actually have that much cream in it!

Serve it as is, or use it as a base for your own add-ins. Try tossing through some shredded leftover Roast Chicken or Poached Chicken, or adding a handful of spinach.

Creamy tomato pasta on a plate with marinated kale salad.

Creamy tomato sauce for pasta

Is it pink? Or orange?

It doesn’t sound nearly as fun to chat to you about an orange pasta sauce.

I’m sticking with pink.

Pink tomato cream sauce!

“This pasta with tomato cream sauce is a less guilty way to get your creamy pasta fix!”

Creamy Tomato Pasta in a skillet with parmesan.

Tomato cream sauce – a healthier creamy pasta!

This is the first recipe I’ve made for my website after being away for almost a month, firstly on the annual RecipeTin Family trip to Japan, followed shortly thereafter by a trip with friends to New Zealand.

You would think that she who sulked so mightily when she found her jeans were just as snug post-trek as they were pre-trek would be inspired to be share some bright, fresh salads, “goddess cleansing bowls”, be converted to zoodles or cauliflower crust pizza.

But alas, no. She craves creamy pasta. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Well, at least this is a less guilty creamy pasta!  There’s a generous amount of tomato cream sauce in this pasta (you’ll see in the video) but it’s mostly tomato and milk.

And actually, this can even be made without cream. Cream isn’t a pantry staple for me so I sometimes make the Creamy Tomato Pasta sauce just using milk and adding an extra dollop of butter to add richness.

Creamy Tomato Pasta - a less guilty way to get your creamy pasta fix, this luscious sauce is made with tomato, milk, parmesan, garlic and cream.

I’ve provided the recipe plain which is how I usually have it, because it’s so lovely and saucy it deserves to be twirled and slurped just as it is. However, add-ins are entirely possible and I’ve provided some tips in the recipe for how to do so.

Try this with a fresh garden salad with a Balsamic dressing, French or Italian dressing on the side. If you feel like going all out, add a side of Better-Than-Dominos Garlic Bread or Cheesy Garlic Bread. Enjoy! – Nagi x


More ways to get your creamy pasta fix!

  • Fettucine Alfredo – also try this One Pot Chicken Alfredo Pasta

  • Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta

  • Creamy Garlic Shrimp/Prawn Pasta

  • Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

  • Baked Mac and Cheese – and try the Shrimp version!

  • Browse all pasta recipes

Creamy Tomato Pasta on a fork.

Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Pasta with tomato cream sauce
Watch how to make it

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Creamy tomato pasta on a plate with marinated kale salad.

Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 minutes mins
Cook: 15 minutes mins
Total: 20 minutes mins
Mains
Western
4.96 from 68 votes
Servings4
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Recipe video above. Pasta in a pink tomato cream sauce! You’ll love how creamy this sauce is, how there’s plenty of it and yet you don’t need gallons of cream. Slurp-worthy as it is, or use it as a base for add ins of your choice – suggestions in the recipe notes. 

Ingredients

  • 300g/10 oz spaghetti
  • 2 tbsp / 30g unsalted butter
  • 3 garlic cloves , minced
  • ½ onion , finely chopped
  • 1 cup / 250 ml tomato passata / tomato puree (Note 1)
  • 3/4 cup / 185 ml heavy / thickened cream (Note 2 for subs)
  • 1/2 cup / 125 ml milk , low fat
  • 3/4 cup / 30g parmesan , finely freshly grated (Note 3)
  • 1 tsp dried basil, or other herb of choice
  • 1 tsp chicken or vegetable stock powder , or 1 bouillon cube, crumbled (Note 4)
  • Finely ground pepper + salt
Prevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

  • Cook pasta in a big pot of boiling water for time per packet MINUS 2 minutes. Just before draining, scoop out a mugful of pasta cooking water.
  • Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, cook until translucent – about 2 minutes.
  • Add remaining ingredients. Stir until parmesan is melted. Turn heat up slightly and simmer for 2 minutes. Adjust salt to taste.
  • Add pasta. Toss for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce thickens and is clinging to pasta instead of swimming on the base of the skillet (video shows this well). Use reserved pasta cooking water if required to thin the sauce out if it gets too thick.
  • Serve immediately, garnished with more parmesan and parsley if desired.

Recipe Notes:

1. Tomato Passata, known as Tomato Puree in America, is pureed strained tomatoes that is sold in tall bottles. It’s 100% tomato, no additives or flavourings. It’s smoother than crushed tomatoes and makes gorgeous thick tomato based sauces. In Australia, you’ll find it in the pasta section in supermarkets and it costs around the same as canned tomato. Passata is not the same as tomato paste which is a concentrate.
American canned Tomato Sauce (Hunts etc) is a suitable substitute, or your favourite tomato pasta sauce (use 1 cup). Canned crushed or finely diced tomato can also be used but you’ll need 1 x 400g/14oz can, add it first and cook down for 5 minutes before adding milk, cream etc.
2. The sauce thickness mostly comes from the passata so this recipe could actually be made with just milk, no cream, for a healthier alternative though you will miss the richness that cream brings to the sauce. You could also use evaporated milk, again for a healthier alternative. If you want to add richness to the sauce, add extra butter!
3. Don’t try this with store bought grated parmesan as most don’t melt properly in the sauce.
4. Stock powder brings more flavour to the sauce than just using salt. If you don’t have it, I would add an extra 1/4 – 1/2 cup parmesan.
5. ADD-IN SUGGESTIONS: Shrimp/prawns, BACON, pancetta, chicken, turkey, diced or sliced capsicum / bell peppers, mushrooms, spinach, grated zucchini. For prawns/shrimp and whole chicken pieces (breast, thigh), cook it first then take it out, cut chicken then toss back in later with pasta. For chopped chicken, bacon, pancetta and vegetables, add them when the onion is partway cooked, then proceed with recipe. Stir through delicate vegetables like baby spinach into the sauce with the pasta.
Don’t go overboard with the add-ins otherwise you might not have enough sauce! 
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 284gCalories: 546cal (27%)
Keywords: Creamy tomato pasta, Creamy tomato sauce, Tomato cream sauce
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

Just like his Mama, he needs a creamy pasta fix every now and then too….

….. though I am happy to say his Mama doesn’t have this problem (Food Catching Chest Hair).

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161 Comments

  1. Darby says

    November 8, 2019 at 2:56 am

    Hi Nagi! Do you think this pasta could then be baked with cheese on top? (Following your method from your recipe for Baked Ziti)

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      November 8, 2019 at 12:28 pm

      Yes definitely Darby!

      Reply
  2. Ella says

    October 9, 2019 at 11:17 pm

    The pasta was delish, but I am not an experienced cook. When the recipe said to add the rest of the ingredients, I added the entire mugful of pasta water because I didn’t realize that it was only to thin out the sauce. The end result was very soupy, but still very tasty! Everyone loved it!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      October 10, 2019 at 7:14 pm

      Oh no Ella! You only need a little to just thin out the sauce, I’m glad you loved it though – N x

      Reply
  3. Anita says

    August 23, 2019 at 1:54 am

    5 stars
    Sooo yummy. 5* from everyone at the table. I used penne pasta instead of spaghetti and added bacon and mushrooms. Very very tasty and I cannot wait to make this again!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      August 23, 2019 at 2:09 pm

      Wahoo! Sounds like you nailed it Anita!

      Reply
  4. Anita says

    August 23, 2019 at 1:53 am

    5 stars
    Soooooo yummy! Added mushrooms and bacon and it was heaven. It was gone very quickly. Can’t wait to make it again!

    Reply
  5. Hannah says

    March 16, 2019 at 8:00 am

    4 stars
    This is a great recipe! So easy to make but rather nice. We added bacon for extra smokiness!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 18, 2019 at 4:33 pm

      Thanks so much for the feedback Hannah!

      Reply
  6. Liana says

    February 17, 2019 at 11:46 am

    Can the sauce be frozen if I don’t want to use all the sauce? Thanks 🙂

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      February 18, 2019 at 8:05 am

      I don’t see why not ❤️

      Reply
  7. Lou says

    February 7, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    5 stars
    It’s not often I cook the same recipe twice in one week but oh my! This is just ah-mazing! Always confident using a Nagi recipe…it’s a winner before I even cook it for the first time!!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      February 8, 2019 at 10:54 am

      That’s so nice to hear Lou! I’m so happy you love this one!

      Reply
  8. Sally says

    January 21, 2019 at 3:02 pm

    5 stars
    I love all your recipes! I was craving pasta, but my usual recipes take too long to make. This one really hit the spot!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      January 21, 2019 at 5:54 pm

      I’m so glad you loved it Sally!! ❤️

      Reply
  9. Shellie says

    January 5, 2019 at 5:54 am

    Can I substitute tomato sauce or tomatoe paste for the purée? I want to make this tonight. It’s January 4th 2019 I hope you can get back to me ASAP

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      January 7, 2019 at 9:28 pm

      Hi Shellie, what country are you in – I have the substitutions in the recipe notes. Love to know if you gave this a go and what you used!!

      Reply
  10. Kate in Maine says

    December 7, 2018 at 12:11 am

    5 stars
    My family all loved this!! Thank you so much. I live in the US and appreciate you helping out with ingredient suggestions and substitutes. Thank you – we love your recipes so much. For the record – I was making this with what we had on hand – so I used marinara (put it in the blender w/a little tomato paste), whole milk (all I had) and heavy cream, and vegetarian soup base – it was still ah-mazing.

    Reply
    • Nagi Maehashi says

      December 7, 2018 at 4:12 pm

      I’m so glad to hear that Kate!!! ❤️

      Reply
  11. Inga says

    July 11, 2018 at 12:17 am

    5 stars
    I made this twice since I discovered your website 2 weeks ago as a quick weeknight supper. First time I did it with Parmigiano Reggiano and it turned out terrific, the second time with a leftover of Parmigiano Reggiano and some regular mixed “pasta cheese”. What a difference these small changes make. Definitely better with the good stuff… 🙂 It was a sure hit with the family, you can never go wrong with pasta and tomato sauce. 🙂
    Keep up the good work!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 11, 2018 at 8:39 pm

      🙌🏻 🙌🏻 LOVE hearing that! Thanks for letting me know Inga! N x

      Reply
  12. Susan says

    July 10, 2018 at 2:52 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Nagi,
    Once again, I have to say thank you for an easy recipe for this not so talented cook.
    I’m about as elegant as Dozer when it comes to spaggi so I prefer to use shells or spirals to save the mess.
    I could only find a 400ml jar of Passata so I used the whole lot and increased all the other ingredients by a goodly third. And a 500gm pack of large shells.
    I even bought ‘real’ parmesan cheese to grate instead of the pre-grated stuff, and that’s a first for me!
    Everything turned out wonderfully well. I had a huge bowl for lunch, there’s another in the fridge for tomorrow and 2 to put in the freezer. I can’t think of any way I would change this, but next time I may add some cooked bacon
    Thanks again, Nagi

    Hugs to you, your Mum and Dozer.
    Susan

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      July 11, 2018 at 8:30 pm

      No putting yourself down Susan! You must cook just fine if you handled this 🙂 PS Shells make great couch food. ie food you can eat with a spoon on the couch without taking your eyes off the TV!!

      Reply
      • Susan Andrews says

        July 12, 2018 at 12:23 am

        Oh dear, I’ve been sprung…..I was watching a movie while I ate this!!

        Reply
  13. Jocelyn says

    April 12, 2018 at 2:44 pm

    5 stars
    So delicious! My family loved this easy dish. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 15, 2018 at 9:03 pm

      That’s terrific to hear Jocelyn! Thanks for letting me know – N x

      Reply
  14. Andi says

    April 9, 2018 at 9:56 am

    5 stars
    Nagi, I made this last night and I’m still smiling right now. This recipe was absolutely D-LISH-SHUSH, and I think the vegetable bouillon cube I used gave the dish flavor. One bouillon cube was somewhere around 840 ml of sodium so I shaved off a teaspoon and it still gave the dish lots of flavor.

    I had homemade sauce in the freezer, so my sauce was just a tad soupy. I could have added more cheese while cooking but I didn’t want to until plated, and, I normally cook just a handful of pasta since I’m the only one eating it. So at the end………….I put the noodles and the sauce in a beautiful, deep-dish bowl (practically had my face in the bowl as if I were getting a facial), slurped, and ate all that I could! Had a slight bellyache but it was worth it, so good.

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 11, 2018 at 7:38 pm

      WHOOT!!! I absolutely LOVE HEARING THAT ANDI!!! N xx

      Reply
  15. Barb says

    April 6, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    5 stars
    My hand is up….I totally stuffed this recipe last week, the simplest of simplest recipes and it’s my fault. Thinking what a great recipe to go without meat, yea, this one is too easy; I can do this with my eyes closed. With most dinners I like to cook extra so MOTH & myself have scrummy leftovers for lunch.

    Thinking there won’t be enough slurpy sauce for the pasta, I used an 800g bottle of passata + tomato paste. Talk about a rich tomato overload….mine was definitely orange getting closer to red.

    Anyway, I made it again last night sticking to your measurements and yep, it was perfect. I’ve eaten today’s lunch already and delighted to advise there was still plenty of creamy goodness for the pasta. I did add jalapeno chillies for a kick. Also, I swapped the cream for greek yoghurt. Yummy scrummy indeed!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      April 8, 2018 at 4:29 pm

      YES!!! PS Barb, I am sure I stuff up many more recipes than you do…. and it’s my JOB! 😂

      Reply
      • Batool says

        March 15, 2019 at 1:37 am

        Hi Nagi.. do i need to melt the bouillon cube in boiled water as I usually do ? and is it ok to use canned tomatoes as I don’t have the tomato passata..Thanks for the amazing recipe 😀

        Reply
  16. Jana says

    March 29, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    5 stars
    Oh my goodness this is the BEST! My 2 and 4 yr old LOVED this so much I think I have to make a double batch next time.

    Reply
  17. suja Md says

    March 28, 2018 at 2:59 am

    5 stars
    Our dinner nights are becoming pasta nights recently. Making many verities of pasta to make my family happy, and this one of course very tempting. The tomato would do all the wonders here I guess.

    Reply
  18. Sam says

    March 18, 2018 at 11:12 am

    5 stars
    Used this as a base for a “fridge clean out” dinner. Added zucchini, bell peppers and chopped tomato to the sauce while it was cooking. Had no cream, but didn’t miss it. Absolutely delicous!

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      March 18, 2018 at 2:36 pm

      I’m so pleased you enjoyed this Sam! Thanks for letting me know! N x

      Reply
  19. Peter says

    March 17, 2018 at 4:18 pm

    Hi Nagi,

    I discovered your website looking for a baked chicken and rice recipe (it was great!) The color of the sauce was my mom’s favorite color (colour), coral. How about calling it Coral Pink Pasta?

    Reply
  20. Leanne says

    March 16, 2018 at 7:43 pm

    5 stars
    Nagi, this is absolutely delicious! I didn’t change a thing in your recipe just added some prawns for our dinner. Can’t fault it. Personally, i think this calls for the distinct flavour of dried basil. Love, love, love it. Please give Dozer a smooch.

    Reply
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I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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