Looking for a great tomato sauce? Here’s your recipe: this Tomato Cream Sauce! Rich heavy cream is the ideal pairing with tangy, acidic tomatoes. The way the cream rounds out the flavor and texture is simply stunning. It’s similar to an Italian Vodka Sauce, but a lot less work. We’ve also got a genius vegan variation for you, too. Here’s how to do it!
Ingredients for tomato cream sauce
This tomato cream sauce is simple and requires only a handful of ingredients. In fact, we love whipping it up on a weeknight where we’re not sure what to make. It tastes loads better than a store-bought jar of marinara: there’s something about the realness of homemade sauce. Here’s what you’ll need:
Olive oil Garlic Fennel seeds Crushed tomatoes (see notes below) Tomato paste Heavy cream (or cashew cream for vegan) Onion Dried oregano Salt and pepper
Find the best quality canned tomatoes
This tomato cream sauce is most dependent on the quality of the tomatoes. Make sure you’re using best quality canned tomatoes in this recipe! Here are a few notes on what to look for:
Look for fire roasted tomatoes, if you can find them. They’re roasted over a flame before canning, and the flavor is sweet and developed right out of the can. Or look for San Marzano tomatoes. They’re an Italian variety of tomato with a sweet flavor. Can’t find either one? Just use the best quality canned crushed tomatoes you can find.
How to make tomato cream sauce: a few flavor secrets
This tomato cream sauce has a few flavor secrets that take it over the top! Here are a few things to note (besides the canned tomatoes, of course):
The secret ingredient? Fennel seeds. The fennel adds add hearty, meaty flavor that can’t be replicated. Don’t leave it out! Add an entire half onion (no need to dice!). This is one of our favorite tricks for a tomato sauce. Throw in a peeled onion and let the flavor seep in: no cutting required. Simmer until thickened. This should take about 20 to 30 minutes. If you have 30 minutes, use it! It tastes even better after simmering down a little more.
Vegan variation: use cashew cream
Want to make a vegan tomato cream sauce? We’ve got your back. Substitute equal parts cashew cream for the heavy cream! Cashew cream is a sauce made from soaked cashews that magically blends into a dairy substitute. We use it in many of our creamy vegan dishes and it works like a charm. Cashew cream is what adds the richness in our Vegan Ranch, Creamy Vegan Pasta Marinara and our Wild Rice Soup.
Serve with 1 pound pasta (or tortellini)
Once you’ve got your tomato cream sauce, it works with 1 pound of pasta! You can use it on any type of noodles: long noodles like spaghetti and bucatini, or short noodles like rigatoni, shells, farfalle, and more. If you don’t want to use it all at once, refrigerate it for up to 1 week. A favorite way to serve it over here? In this Easy Tortelloni recipe! (It’s a bigger, better version of tortellini.) Simply make this sauce, boil up 18 ounces refrigerated tortelloni, and combine. Delicious!
More pasta sauce recipes
Want more homemade pasta sauces? Here are our top sauce recipes:
Opt for this Quick Tomato Basil Sauce or Easy Marinara Sauce Try spicy Arrabiata Sauce or bold Brown Butter Sage Sauce Go white with Garlic Butter Sauce, Easy Cream Sauce, White Wine Sauce or Parmesan Cream Sauce Try green Pesto Cream Sauce
This tomato cream sauce recipe is…
Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.
4.5 from 2 reviews
