Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce – Erren’s Kitchen

Ready in just 30 minutes, this simple, tasty recipe for Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce is a great way to use up fresh tomatoes from your garden!

Serve with my Perfect Garlic Bread for the ultimate weeknight dinner.

I love cooking with fresh ingredients and nothing is fresher than straight from your garden!  I don’t garden myself (I was not born with a green thumb), but my sister is always sharing what she grows which is always a pleasure to cook with!

When I created this recipe, I was low on tomato sauce so I thought I’d create a new version of standard tomato basil pasta sauce.  It was super simple to make and really delicious! I now make this a lot over the summer months.

Ingredient Notes

• Tomatoes – Use fresh, thin skinned tomatoes. Cherry, grape, or baby Roma tomatoes are all good choices, but you can use any small tomatoes you grow in your garden.
• Garlic – Fresh garlic makes all the difference here, but if you don’t like working with it, try buying peeled whole garlic that you can freshly mince.
• Basil – I love using fresh basil, but you can use whatever herbs you like best in tomato sauce.
• Salt & Pepper – I always work with coarse salt such as kosher or sea salt along with freshly ground black pepper. If you use regular table salt, please keep in mind it is much saltier than coarse salts so use it in small amounts at a time.

Step by Step Instructions

Clean and dry the tomatoes well. Cut a quarter of the tomatoes in half.

Heat the oil on medium a large, frying pan and add the garlic. Cook 30 seconds until it is just fragrant. 

Add the tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until some tomatoes burst and release their juices to form a sauce.

Remove the pan from heat and, using a large slotted spoon, scoop out one or two spoonfuls of the whole tomatoes and set aside. 

Add the remaining tomato mixture to a blender or food processor.

Puree until smooth.

Return the mixture to the pan with the whole tomatoes you set aside. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil and then cook for 2-3 minutes to reduce the sauce and thicken to desired consistency. Add the basil, taste for seasoning and add salt as needed before serving.

To Serve with Pasta

Cook your pasta in salted water until just underdone. And reserve a a cup of the cooking water before draining.

Add the pasta to the pan with the sauce to finish cooking in the sauce. Add the pasta water to loosen as needed.

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Let’s Make
Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

This easy, fresh pasta sauce with cherry tomatoes is a vibrant and deliciously healthy dish. This simple dish is perfect for busy weeknight dinners.

Prep10 minutes minutes

Cook20 minutes minutes

Total30 minutes minutes

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until just undercooked; reserve 2 cups of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta and set aside.

• Heat the oil on medium heat in a large, non-stick frying pan.

• Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds to a minute (you just want it fragrant)

• Add the tomatoes and season well with salt and add the pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until some of the tomatoes burst and release their juices to form a sauce, 6–8 minutes.

• Remove from heat and, using a large slotted spoon, scoop out one or two spoonful of the whole tomatoes and set aside.

• Add the remaining tomato mixture to a blender or food processor and puree until smooth (after pureeing if there is too much skin or seeds to your liking, you can strain the sauce at this point into a bowl).

• Return the mixture to the pan with the whole tomatoes you set aside. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil and then cook for 3-5 minutes to reduce the sauce and thicken to desired consistency. Add the basil, taste for seasoning and add salt as needed. If the sauce tastes high in acid, you can add the sugar at this point.

• Add the pasta to the pan to finish cooking in the sauce. Add the pasta water to loosen as needed.

Tips + Notes

• If the sauce tastes high in acid, you can sugar at the end and then cook for 3-5 minutes on low heat just to dissolve the sugar.
• This recipe can be made ahead and refrigerated for two days.
• You can add any herbs of your choice, such as basil, parsley, or oregano. If you don’t have fresh herbs you can add dried.
• Baking soda neutralizes acidity. To save bitter tomato sauce, add a pinch of baking soda at a time (tasting in between) until the acidity disappears.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 377 (19%)| Carbohydrates: 64g (21%)| Protein: 11g (22%)| Fat: 8g (12%)| Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)| Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g| Monounsaturated Fat: 5g| Sodium: 22mg (1%)| Potassium: 510mg (15%)| Fiber: 4g (17%)| Sugar: 6g (7%)| Vitamin A: 740IU (15%)| Vitamin C: 35mg (42%)| Calcium: 38mg (4%)| Iron: 2mg (11%)

Nutritional Data Disclaimer

Erren’s Kitchen is written and produced for informational intentions only. We are not certified nutritionists, and the nutritional information found on this site has not been assessed or authorized by a nutritionist or the FDA. The nutritional information found in our recipes is offered as an estimate and should not be considered a guarantee or fact. The estimated data is provided as a courtesy and calculated through a third-party online nutritional calculator, spoonacular API. Although we do our best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered rough estimates. Many factors, such as brands or products purchased and the nutritional fluctuations that naturally occur in fresh produce, can alter the effectiveness of the nutritional information in any recipe. Furthermore, various online calculators provide different results depending on their particular algorithms and nutrition fact sources.
To obtain the most precise nutritional information in a provided recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the exact ingredients you are using when preparing the recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Course:sauce

Cuisine:Italian

Keyword:Cherry tomato pasta, Cherry tomato pasta sauce, Cherry tomato sauce

This recipe was first published in 2015, but was republished with new photos and content in July of 2021.