Creamy Tomato Pasta
This creamy tomato pasta is easy to make and super delicious. The flavorful sauce is made with fire-roasted tomatoes and just enough cream to make it silky and luxurious. It's the best 15-minute pasta recipe around!

Creamy tomato pasta
Just because you don't want to spend all day in your kitchen doesn't mean you can't treat yourself to an incredible dinner. This creamy tomato pasta recipe proves that with as little as 15 minutes, you can eat a meal that you'll be dreaming about for days.
- It all starts with a little onion and garlic.
- Then we add a can of fire-roasted tomatoes to the mix – it's our secret weapon for making tomato-based dishes extra delicious.
- We pour some milk and cream into the pan and simmer it for about 5 minutes so that it thickens enough to coat the pasta.
- Finally some parmesan cheese melts into the sauce before it mixes with the pasta and basil leaves.
Those 4 little steps will take you to pasta heaven!
Creamy tomato pasta variations
While we love this recipe exactly as written, it's a flexible recipe that's easy to switch up and experiment with. Here are a few ideas:
- Spinach: Add several handfuls to the sauce at the end.
- Sun dried tomatoes: Dice then add them with the cream.
- Spicy sausage: Cook at the beginning with the onion.
- Chicken: Chop it into bite-sized pieces and add it with the onion.
What to serve with creamy tomato pasta
This pasta recipe is easily a meal in itself. But if you'd like to add some veggies, a simple salad or our bacon kale caesar salad goes great.
You can also serve this pasta as a side to baked salmon, baked pork chops, or juicy pork tenderloin.

Popular pasta recipes
- Chicken Pesto Pasta
- Lemon Chicken Pasta
- Smoked Salmon Pasta
- One-Pot Pasta with Peas and Bacon
- Pasta Puttanesca

Creamy Tomato Pasta
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces dried pasta, gluten-free if needed
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup finely minced onion
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 14 ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup cream
- ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 pinch chili flakes, if you like it a little spicy
- 1 cup grated parmesan
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
- ¼ cup torn basil leaves, can use baby spinach
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain then toss with a little olive oil and set aside.Ā8 ounces dried pasta
- While the pasta water is heating, begin the sauce. Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.1 tablespoon butter, ½ cup finely minced onion, 3 cloves garlic
- Increase the heat to medium-high then add the can of tomatoes, milk, cream, Italian seasoning, and if using, the chili flakes to the pan and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parmesan cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.Ā14 ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes, ½ cup milk, ½ cup cream, ½ teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 pinch chili flakes, 1 cup grated parmesan, Sea salt and pepper
- Add the cooked pasta and the basil leaves to the pan and toss to coat in the creamy tomato sauce.¼ cup torn basil leaves
Notes
Pin this recipe to save it for later!

Made this last night when I needed a quick meal for the family. It was a hit! Everyone loved it!
Does this recipe work with almond milk and full-fat coconut milk? Iām sensitive to dairy, but I can tolerate the parmesan.
I don’t recommend coconut milk as it will dramatically change the flavor. My favorite dairy-free trick to make things creamy is to mix 2 tablespoons of cashew butter with ¼ cup water. When it’s cooked, it thickens. Or you could try cream cheese if you are ok with that. š