This Bucatini Pomodoro Pasta is a quick dinner, requiring only 5 simple ingredients and a little bit of time. The Pomodoro sauce is bright, vibrant, and tomato-ey! A weeknight winner!
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Bucatini Pomodoro is one of my all-time favorite meals. Delicious San Marzano tomatoes are cooked down low and slow, concentrating their flavor and then blended until smooth tomato sauce.
Top the sauce over bucatini pasta, which is a spaghetti-like pasta with a small hole running through the middle of the noodle, and then top it off with a bit of parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves.
If this bucatini Pomodoro recipe sounds good to you, check out my Pink Sauce Pasta. If you want something a little simpler, you could make Lemon Garlic Butter Pasta. And a great side for either one is this Air Fryer Frozen Garlic Bread.
Ingredients for Bucatini Pomodoro
- Bucatini Pasta - my favorite noodle for any tomato-based sauce
- Tomatoes - use canned tomatoes - only San Marzano will do. I haven't tried making this with fresh tomatoes, so I'm not sure how it would turn out.
- Olive Oil - extra virgin olive oil is best for this recipe
- Onion - a small dice
- Garlic Cloves - thinly sliced
- Salt and Pepper
- Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
- Basil
- Parmesan
Full ingredient quantities in the recipe card below.
How to Make Bucatini Pomodoro
- In a large skillet over medium heat sauté onions and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes until translucent. Lower to medium-low heat and add the tomatoes. Simmer for 30 minutes.
- Once the tomatoes have simmered for 30 minutes use a regular blender or an immersion blender to blend the sauce until smooth. Return the sauce to the pan.
- While the sauce cooks, cook your noodles according to package instructions.* Add the cooked pasta into the sauce and stir to coat. Add a tablespoon of pasta water if needed to thin the sauce if needed.
- Garnish with parmesan cheese and basil, then serve.
*if you like your pasta al dente, cook it that way. But the pasta wont cook much more in the sauce, so cook the pasta how you like to eat it.
FAQ's
Bucatini is a very thick kind of spaghetti with a hole going down the middle of the noodle. It's great for with a smooth sauce because the hole allows sauce to cover every single bit of the noodle.
If you use vegan cheese, nutritional yeast, or leave the cheese off altogether, it sure is! Make sure your noodles are vegan as well.
Marinara is a runnier, but chunkier sauce. Pomodoro sauce is blended completely smooth, but is a thick sauce. Pomodoro is usually only seasoned with onion and garlic, while marinara usually has spices such as oregano and crushed red pepper.
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Bucatini Pomodoro
Ingredients
- 12 ounces bucatini pasta
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- ½ small onion, diced
- salt and pepper
- Red Pepper Flakes Optional
- 1 28 ounce can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
- basil and parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to manufacturer directions. Save ½ cup of the pasta water once the pasta is cooked. Drain, and set the pasta aside.
- In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook 5-8 minutes until translucent.
- Add the tomatoes, and start to break the tomatoes apart with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to medium low, and allow the tomatoes to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring every 5-8 minutes or so.
- After 30 minutes, the sauce should be cooked down a fair amount, and very thick. You can blend the sauce in a few different way. 1. You can use an immersion blender. 2. You can move the sauce to a blender and blend in batches.*
- Return the blended sauce to the pan. Use ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water by pouring it over the resting pasta to loosen any noodles that have clumped. Add the pasta into the sauce, and stir to combine. If the sauce is too thick, add a little bit of the pasta water in at a time until the sauce is to your liking.
- Serve with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
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