The most flavorful sauces for pasta are the ones with the fewest ingredients. They’re simple and elegant, some slow and some quick—all easy to prepare.
Fresh Tomato Sauce
Homemade fresh tomato sauce takes very little effort but a lot of time. Three ingredients—fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, and salt—make a warm, inviting, classic sauce for any kind of pasta. The tomato paste is an important ingredient, so choose one from Italy, if you can. It usually comes in a tube and is often double-concentrated for extra richness. It’s great for helping to thicken juicy tomatoes.
Ingredients
(This recipe makes a small batch for four servings. You can easily double or triple it and freeze the sauce in small batches for several months.)
- 1 1/2 lb fresh tomatoes, large enough to peel easily
- 3 tbsp Italian tomato paste
- sea salt, to taste
Preparation
- Peel the tomatoes over the pot you’re going to cook them in to catch all the juices. Cut them into small chunks once they’re peeled.
- When all the tomatoes are in the pot, crush them in your fingers to break them up a bit.
- Place the pot on the range over medium heat and slowly bring the tomatoes to a simmer. While the tomatoes heat, stir in the tomato paste and season with salt.
- When the tomatoes come to a simmer, reduce the heat to the lowest level and cover. (If your burner keeps the tomatoes simmering too hard even on low, leave the lid barely ajar to help stop the bubbling.)
- Stir the sauce every 30-45 minutes and let cook for at least 3 hours. Turn off the heat and let sit for 1 hour longer.
Pesto
Pesto is a classic Italian sauce using fresh basil. Like fresh tomato sauce, pesto also requires few ingredients, but instead of taking hours to cook, there’s no cooking at all. If you’re making it to freeze, don’t add the cheese until the pesto has thawed and come to room temperature.
The recipe below is for 4-5 servings. It won’t look like a lot in the bowl, but pesto is very rich and you don’t need much for pasta.
Ingredients
- 2 cups packed basil leaves
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Preparation
- Place the first 5 ingredients (through pepper) in a food processor and grind until finely chopped.
- With the processor on, slowly pour in the olive oil.
- Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl and process until smooth.
- Pour the sauce into a bowl and stir in the cheese (unless you’re freezing it).
Lighter Alfredo
This recipe for Alfredo sauce is a little lighter than traditional Alfredo since it uses half-and-half instead of heavy cream and less butter than usual. Choose a rich cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano and you can use less of that too.
This recipe makes 4-5 servings. Like pesto, Alfredo is very rich, so you don’t need much for each serving.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 8 oz. half-and-half
- 3 tbsp Parmigiano-Reggiano
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
Preparation
- Melt the butter over low heat, then increase the heat to medium and slowly stir in the half-and-half.
- Bring to a slight simmer and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Reduce the heat to low and stir in the cheese until it melts.
- Season with salt, pepper, and oregano and toss with hot pasta. Serve sprinkled with chopped fresh herbs on top, if desired.
Pamela Steed Hill - Pamela Steed Hill is an editor, freelance writer, and home cook. She has published over 250 food articles and recipes online.
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