Tiny Kitchen, Big Food

Great food comes from small places

Simple Red Tomato Sauce to Make Tonight

This simple red tomato sauce is easy, fast to make and tastes delicious. The base sauce is just onions, tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper. It is ready to eat in about 15 minutes and has a bright, fresh taste since tomatoes straight from the market are the main ingredient. Yes, I left in the skins in.Yes, I left in the seeds in. This recipe is all about simplicity. This red sauce is not sauce to be labored over, it is all about getting something delicious on the table fast!

pasta with simple red sauce and plenty of parmesan cheese

The idea behind this sauce came from Mario Batali’s cooking style. Mario seems to just just throw some ingredients in a pot and they are magically transformed into something delicious. One day, my friend Joe gave me some tomatoes from his garden. In pure Mario style, I sliced the tomatoes and threw them in a pot and cooked them down and this recipe was born. Also, this was the start of my cooking “career”.

In this red sauce you taste the freshness and the brightness of the tomatoes. You can change up this sauce by adding your favorite flavors. Like the bite of green pepper? You can add them! Like the umami of mushrooms? You can add them! Like fresh basil on top? Add it! This sauce is simple but can be a platform for you modify based on your taste or what you can find at the farmers market or in your pantry.

closeup of sliced roma tomatoes

This tomato sauce is great to have as one your standby recipes when you need a quick dinner because you are really hungry or when your dinner plans change. You can use this recipe three ways. First, you could stop by the supermarket or farmers market and buy the ingredients. Second, you can make the tomato sauce ahead and freeze it. We typically buy a bunch of tomatoes over the summer just to make this red tomato sauce for the freezer. Third, you can make this recipe with canned tomatoes. We always have a couple cans of whole tomatoes and and a box of pasta in the pantry to make red sauce for when we can’t decide what to cook.

Last week I did a cooking demonstration at the Warren Farmers Market with this red tomato sauce. I cooked the pasta before work, drained it, tossed it with olive oil and kept it chilled. When I arrived at the market I bought some delicious ripe tomatoes and a super sweet onion and cooked the sauce on a little hotplate. I transferred the sauce to a bowl and then put a handful of pasta and some sauce into the skillet to heat it to heat both them before handing out hot samples to 25 hungry people at the Market.

cooking red sauce recipe at warren farmers market

Ingredients for Simple Red Tomato Sauce

2 lbs. Tomatoes

1 large Onion

Pasta (of your favorite shape)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil or OOBO

Parmesan Cheese

Mushrooms (optional)

Instructions for Simple Red Tomato Sauce

  1. Add water to pot and heat to boil
  2. Cook pasta according to box directions
  3. While doing steps 1 and 2, start on the sauce by chopping an onion
  4. Sauté onion in EVO or OOBO
  5. Slice tomato
  6. Add tomato to skillet with onion
  7. Cover with lid and cook for 10 minutes
  8. Remove lid, mash up tomatoes and continue cooking
  9. Cook another 5 minutes with stirring as required
  10. Plate pasta
  11. Ladle sauce onto pasta and twist with a fork to combine
  12. Add a pile of grated Parmesan and cracked pepper
  13. Enjoy!