This simple recipe for tomato and basil pasta sauce uses storecupboard ingredients, including basil-infused Italian olive oil, and is ready in under 10 minutes! Serve with your favourite pasta and toppings, and enter our giveaway to win 3 x 250 ml tins of flavoured extra virgin olive oil from Pomora!

A bowl of hot pasta in tomato sauce is one of those perfect, nostalgic comfort foods, to me. I grew up living off spaghetti with Ragu sauce, sprinkled liberally in that fake Parmesan cheese (remember that stuff, it was kept in the cupboard?!). Best dinner, ever.

Now, I find it’s cheaper (and tastier) to make my own sauce. I stock up on jars of passata rustica at the supermarket when I find them on offer (35p per jar!) and it takes just a matter of minutes to transform them into a delicious pasta sauce. Perfect for those busy midweek meals when I can’t be bothered to cook.

Regular readers to my blog will be familiar with the Pomora badge in my sidebar – it’s been there for a good few years now. Pomora is a small Italian olive oil company where, in exchange for ‘adopting’ an olive tree with a quarterly subscription, you receive twelve tins of olive oil throughout the year.

My olive oil comes from Antonio’s olive groves in Campania, and I’ve just received the autumn delivery of flavoured oils – basil-infused, garlic-infused and the gorgeous white truffle flavour.

It is the basil-infused olive oil that is the star of this recipe.

INGREDIENTS FOR TOMATO AND BASIL PASTA SAUCE

• passata rustica (sieved tomatoes)
• garlic – lots of fresh garlic, but you can use lazy garlic too if that’s all you have
• olive oil (to cook)
• basil-infused olive oil (to add at the end) – or add a big handful of fresh basil leaves along with a glug of extra virgin olive oil
• fusilli pasta, to serve (my kids call this ‘normal pasta’)
• sea salt, to add to the pasta water for cooking

HOW TO MAKE TOMATO AND BASIL PASTA SAUCE

Step 1: heat olive oil in a small saucepan

Step 2: add the chopped or crushed garlic. Cook for one minute, until fragrant.

Step 3: add passata rustica (sieved tomatoes) – I look out for bottles of this on offer in the supermarket – often 35p a bottle.

Step 4: bring to a simmer.

Step 5: remove from the heat and stir in a few spoonfuls of basil-infused olive oil or some extra virgin olive oil and a handful of torn, fresh basil leaves.

Step 6: pour over cooked pasta, top as desired and enjoy!

This basic tomato sauce in a bowl of fusilli (aka “normal pasta”) is my children’s favourite go-to comfort food. Sometimes I jazz it up with a sprinkling of dried oregano added along with the garlic, or I use regular olive oil at the end and add a generous handful or two of torn basil leaves. Sometimes I add capers, anchovies and kalamata olives to make spaghetti puttanesca.

It’s an incredibly versatile base too. You could leave it to simmer and thicken for an hour or so to make pizza sauce, or throw in some overripe tomatoes and freeze the sauce for use at a later date.

How do you like your tomato sauce? Let me know in the comments!

Comfort Food Pasta Bowl with Tomato and Basil Pasta Sauce

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This simple recipe uses storecupboard ingredients and is ready in under 10 minutes! Serve with your favourite pasta and toppings.

Comfort Food Pasta Bowl with Tomato and Basil Pasta Sauce

Print Recipe

This simple recipe uses storecupboard ingredients and is ready in under 10 minutes! Serve with your favourite pasta and toppings.

Servings	Prep Time	Cook Time
2servings	5minutes	5minutes

Servings	Prep Time
2servings	5minutes

Cook Time

5minutes

Ingredients

• for the tomato and basil pasta sauce
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped
• 350 ml passata rustica
• 2 tbsp basil-infused olive oil (I use Pomora)
• to cook the pasta
• 160 grams dried fusilli pasta or your favourite pasta
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 2 litres water
• toppings
• freshly ground black pepper
• Parmesan cheese grated, or Cheddar (as pictured, DD's favourite)
• chilli infused olive oil (my favourite)

Servings: servings

Units:MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients for the tomato and basil pasta sauce 4 tbsp olive oil 4 garlic cloves crushed or finely chopped 350 ml passata rustica 2 tbsp basil-infused olive oil (I use Pomora) to cook the pasta 160 grams dried fusilli pasta or your favourite pasta 1.5 tsp sea salt 2 litres water toppings freshly ground black pepper Parmesan cheese grated, or Cheddar (as pictured, DD's favourite) chilli infused olive oil (my favourite) Servings: servings Units:MetricUS Imperial

Instructions

1. Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add salt and pasta. Stir, and set timer according to packet instructions - between 8-11 minutes, usually, depending on the type of pasta.
2. Heat olive oil in small saucepan. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about one minute.
3. Stir in the passata rustica and bring to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, stir in the basil-infused olive oil.
5. Serve with your favourite pasta and toppings.

Recipe Notes

You don't need to add salt or pepper to this sauce, as you add salt when cooking the pasta (the way the Italians do!), and you add freshly ground black pepper to your individual serving along with your other toppings.

Top with grated Parmesan, Grana Padano or Cheddar cheese (this is the way my daughter likes it!). I like mine with a good drizzle of Pomora chilli-infused olive oil and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

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POMORA OLIVE OIL GIVEAWAY

Pomora have kindly offered my UK readers the chance to win a shipment of 3 x 250 ml tins of flavoured extra virgin olive oil worth £39! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter entry form below!

TERMS & CONDITIONS

This giveaway is open to UK entries only. Entrants must be age 18 or over. The winner will need to respond within 28 days of being contacted; failure to do this may result in another winner being selected.

The prize is offered and provided by Pomora.  The prize is to win a shipment of 3 x 250 ml tins of flavoured extra virgin olive oil worth £39. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.

There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary to enter this giveaway. The promoter (Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary) reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveaway and these terms and conditions without notice.

Entry into our giveaways will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here’s a quick clip to show you how. Rafflecopter will pick the winner at random from all the entries received.

Closing date is midnight (that’s 00:00 hours, 12 am on Sunday night/Monday morning) on Monday 22 October 2018 (GMT) and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t forget to check out our other giveaways!

This is not a paid post, although Pomora links are affiliate links, and if you click through them and adopt an olive tree we will earn a small commission. Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to do what I love: mess up my kitchen, share recipe stories, and eat good food!