This 10-minute tomato paste pasta sauce recipe requires no chopping, no special ingredients, and no prep whatsoever without compromising taste! Inspired by Turkish dumpling (manti) sauce, this accidentally-vegan dish needs to be in your weekday dinner arsenal.
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⭐️ How is this pasta sauce different?
Apart from eating pasta plain in its own juice or with yogurt, this is the quickest pasta dish I know of.
The largest ratio of flavor to time in any pasta I've made... no chopping or preparation is required. Even the cleanup is a breeze.
What's more, it can be made with TWO pantry ingredients you likely already have! I'm talking about the humble tomato paste and pretty much any vegetable oil.
You don't even need to use spices if you don't want.
The tomato paste pasta sauce is inspired by the Turkish dumpling dish: mantı (MAWN-tuh).
Mantı's special sauce is made with nothing but oil, tomato paste, and sometimes spices. It is often topped with garlic yogurt and dried mint.
🍅 Quick Pasta Sauce Ingredients
Pasta
I've tried this with spaghetti, pappardelle, penne, fusilli, and farfalle before... so it's safe to say pretty much any type of pasta will work with this sauce.
Because we'll be using the pasta "broth" in our sauce, I highly recommend using bronze-die pasta that has a rough, porous texture and using as little water as possible when boiling.
Italian grandmas may be offended, but we need the extra free starch to thicken and better emulsify our sauce!
Tomato Paste
This is the key ingredient for our recipe! We're basically taking a shortcut from using fresh vine-ripened tomatoes.
Tomatoes are very high in umami thanks to their glutamic and inosinic acids, so they are perfect to bring more flavor to an otherwise-bland pasta dish.
Not only that, but tomato paste itself is highly concentrated—making it even easier to pack a punch!
Of course, the sought-after flavor may depend on the type or brand of tomato paste you have as well.
As a rule, I try not to buy canned tomato paste due to the additional metallic taste. I usually use Turkish tomato and/or pepper pastes from glass jars, and love the Italian triple-concentrated Mutti brand that comes in a tube.
What's more, tomato paste is a natural emulsifier! This means it'll beautifully hold the olive oil and pasta water together.
Emulsifiers get in the way of tiny fat molecules and prevent them from coalescing. Otherwise—even though the pasta water itself (free starch!) is also an emulsifier—the sauce may just split.
Spices
Turkish manti uses Aleppo pepper flakes and dried mint, which give additional depth to the sauce. I sometimes also use thyme/oregano to change it up slightly.
Want to make it even more interesting? Add some cinnamon and tiiny sprinkle of cumin!
Oil
I've tested this with vegan butter, but due to the low smoke point, it just doesn't work as well.
Though in its defense, butter does make this dish taste richer and is also another emulsifying agent... so feel free to use that instead.
I prefer olive oil and although have never tried any other vegetable oils, assume that anything neutral would work well.
Optional: Minced Garlic & Plant Yogurt
Manti isn't manti without garlicky yogurt, but luckily this isn't really manti! Especially if you think eating yogurt in a savory way like this is too unusual, simply skip it.
Or use sour cream instead.
I have a recipe for a perfect plant yogurt (pretty much a Kite Hill copycat), so definitely try it out if you have some on hand!
🍝 How to Make Pasta Sauce in Less Than 10 Minutes
Boil the Pasta
Start with the pasta, and by the time it's almost done the sauce is ready for pasta water!
To boil, use less water than you usually would in order to increase the free starch that’ll be used in the sauce in a minute.
Meanwhile, Cook the Sauce
Bloom the spices in olive oil on low heat for 2 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add the tomato paste.
Cook until the paste is a brick red color, about 7-8 minutes. Raw tomato paste has an unpleasant, metallic taste so we need to cook this off as much as possible short of burning it.
Gradually add pasta water ’til you reach the desired consistency. Stir vigorously to help emulsify.
Serve or Save
Mix with the now cooked pasta and serve immediately as is, or with a minced garlic & yogurt mix (I like homemade yogurt similar to Kite Hill).
This sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or 3 months in the freezer. Just heat it up and stir again.
❓ FAQs
Bronze-die pasta has a rough, porous texture that perfectly holds onto sauces like this tomato paste-based one.
Cut with bronze instead of Teflon, they also release more free starch in hot water. Starchy pasta water is a must-use emulsifier for most sauces!
If you intend on using the pasta water to make a sauce, boil the pasta in as little water as possible, making sure all pasta is submerged throughout.
This increases the density of free starch to be used in the sauce as an emulsifier.
Absolutely, and you should! Tomatoes are very high in umami thanks to their glutamic and inosinic acids, so they are perfect to bring more flavor to an otherwise-bland pasta dish.
Not only that, but tomato paste itself is highly concentrated—making it even easier to pack a punch!
Cook tomato paste in vegetable oil until it turns darker, a brick red color—about 8 minutes on medium heat.
If you don't cook tomato paste long enough it'll hold onto a metallic, off-putting flavor.
If your pasta sauce separates, vigorously stir it again and it should be re-emulsified.
Think of it like an oil & vinegar salad dressing, which also is a temporary emulsion that needs to be mixed again after sitting too long.
🌱 More Delicious Recipes
Try these other go-to recipes! The yogurt and the vegan ground beef go so well on top of this pasta sauce.
If you'd like more protein, this silken tofu in soy sauce & vinegar with avocado on top "recipe" takes about two minutes to whip up!
Did you make this quick pasta recipe? I'd love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a star🌟 rating below. This helps me run Aegean Delight and I always appreciate it 🙂
Print📖 Recipe
10-Minute Tomato Paste Pasta Sauce
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 generous servings 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This 10-minute tomato paste pasta sauce recipe requires no chopping, no special ingredients, and no prep whatsoever without compromising taste! Inspired by Turkish dumpling (mantı) sauce, this accidentally-vegan dish needs to be in your busy weekday dinner arsenal.
Ingredients
- 1 box (450g) pasta
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp chili pepper flakes
- optional: 1 teaspoon dried mint
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 cup pasta water (use less for thicker sauce)
- ½ tsp table salt (if your tomato paste has salt, start with less)
Instructions
Pasta: Any type will work. To boil, use less water than you usually would to increase free starch that’ll be used in the sauce.
Sauce: Bloom the spices in olive oil on low heat for 2 minutes. Turn up the heat to medium and add the tomato paste. Cook until the paste is a brick red color, about 7 minutes—raw tomato paste has an unpleasant, metallic taste. Gradually add pasta water ’til you reach the desired consistency. Stir vigorously to help emulsify.
Serve or Save: Mix with the now cooked pasta and serve immediately as is, or with a minced garlic & yogurt mix (I like Kite Hill).
This sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or 3 months in the freezer. Just heat it up and stir again.
Notes
If using Kosher salt instead of table salt, double the volume (weight will stay the same).
Try not to use tomato paste from a can, they taste even more metallic. Tube tomato pastes like the Italian Mutti brand or Turkish tomato pastes that usually come in glass jars are my favorite.
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Mains Turkish, Pasta
- Cuisine: Turkish, Mediterranean
Keywords: pasta, vegan, quick, easy
Kelly
Wow, why did I not know this before? Saw the photos on reddit today and decided to try. Kids and hubby loved it! It really took 10 minutes start to finish! Thank you..
★★★★★
Gönül
Thank you so much, Kelly!
Tyler
Very easy and also delicious! Thank you so much for the recipe! We added some mushrooms that we had leftover; cooked them separately in the skillet and added them to the sauce.
★★★★★
Gönül
Thanks so much for your feedback, Tyler! Mushrooms on the side sound delicious 🙂
Mattie
Super quick meal that tastes great! I will definitely be using this recipe in the future! Thanks Gönül 🙂
★★★★★
Gönül
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe, Mattie! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
AY
I’m not sure what I did wrong. I tried the recipe for two servings, so I used 8 tbsp of olive oil with the red pepper flakes and dried herbs. When I added the tomato paste, it was pretty thick like yours, so I broke it up a bit to have all of the paste get in the oil to cook. It did turn brick red, and then I added a bit of water and started mixing, but it never became a thorough mixture. You can see the clumps of tomato paste in it. I’m not sure where I went wrong or what my mistake was. The sauce looks like blobs of tomato paste that’s separated in some fried oil. The oil was getting super bubbly too as if it was just frying the tomato paste like nuggets or something. Because I used a shallow pan to make the sauce, I thought I wasn’t able to “stir vigorously” as much as I had to, so I tried transferring to a bowl and using a whisk to get it smoother. This didn’t work. To no avail, I wasn’t able to get the sauce to change from being tomato paste blobs in dark oil.
I would be grateful if you could help me. I imagine I’m doing something wrong since others were able to make this with no problem. 🙃 Thanks!
Gönül
Hi AY, I'm so sorry you ran into trouble with emulsifying the sauce!
Was the "water" pasta water or regular water you added after the tomato paste got darker? In case it wasn't pasta water, that was the culprit. You really need the free starch from pasta, otherwise, it'd be clumpy as you describe.
But if it was indeed pasta water, I'm assuming the tomato paste wasn't broken apart/stirred adequately in the oil. It's normal for it to look somewhat separated before adding the pasta water but what you describe doesn't sound like what it should be. The heat may have been too high to get a chance to stir more as well.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Gönül