Make the most of canned tomatoes in this easy sauce recipe that’s perfect for rigatoni pasta and penne. The sauce is great for pizza too.
I like to keep things simple with tomato sauce. Canned tomatoes are a pantry staple, so recipes with them should be approachable. They are one of the most reliable weeknight/whenever go-to ingredients.
And it doesn’t always have to be sauce. Canned tomatoes are the starting point for countless soups including my favorite roasted tomato soup.
I know there are people who spend hours crafting their rendition of a treasured family recipe, but my version finishes simmering in about 10-15 minutes. It’s a simple sauce that definitely delivers, which is what it should be for most pasta dishes. You really don’t need much more than that.
Keeping with a strategy of no-fuss meal prep, I have this rigatoni recipe with tomato sauce on regular weeknight dinner rotation. I will even make the sauce on a Sunday; so then I am ready for the busy days ahead. A bowl of spaghetti or rigatoni noodles and sauce is my kind of comfort food.
With its ridges and big tubular shape, rigatoni is the ultimate noodle for thicker sauces. It really picks up the chunkier bits. Holding on to sauce is the job of those ridges.
Rigatoni is similar to ziti and penne, but it is larger in diameter. Also, the ends of rigatoni are cut straight unlike the angled ends of penne.
And ziti noodles are smooth without those signature pasta ridges. Save them for a casserole.
Rigatoni is a pasta that can do a lot of things with from being boiled to baked in pasta dishes. No matter how you cook it, you will end up with a filling meal.
For this pasta you will need these ingredients:
The simmer time kind of depends on what you’re planning to do with the sauce.
For pasta, I usually keep the sauce a little looser and simmer it for less time, closer to 10 minutes. Remember you can always use pasta cooking water to thin it out too in case you end up simmering it too long for your intended use.
For pizza, I like a thicker sauce, so I simmer it longer, around 15 minutes. Depending whether you prefer smooth or chunky sauce, you can puree it in the blender if you want to add that step. This is more relevant for pizza than pasta.
You can make the sauce up to 3 days in advance. Wait to cook the pasta until you are ready to serve the actual meal. Then you will have the pasta cooking water to thin out the sauce as necessary, and you will have freshly simmered al dente noodles.
Store the sauce in the refrigerator in airtight container. If you are planning to store it longer (up to 1 month), go ahead and freeze it. You can put it out on the kitchen counter at room temperature to thaw.
Keep everything simple and serve the pasta with an easy arugula salad with Parmesan and lemon vinaigrette.
If you are like me and love a spicy tomato sauce, go all in on the red pepper flakes. They are such an easy way to deliver some serious heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon of flakes into the sauce.
You can take advantage of the heat of the sauce and stir in baby spinach or chopped kale. It will wilt in minutes and is such an easy way to add another nutritious ingredient.
Also, to top the pasta, try fresh basil if it’s in season or torn fresh mozzarella cheese if you’re craving something a little richer.
You can’t beat the convenience of canned tomatoes. They get me through the majority of the year when fresh ones are not in season.
Here are more recipes using this pantry staple:
Roasted Eggplant Zucchini Tomato Stew
Cheese Tortellini Pasta Bake
Lentil Wild Rice Soup
Baked Tomato Farro Risotto
Chickpea Arrabiata
Make the most of canned tomatoes in this easy sauce recipe that’s perfect for rigatoni pasta. The sauce is great for pizza too.
Storing: Let the sauce cool to room temperature before transferring to containers to store.
Arrabiata variation: To make a spicy tomato sauce, increase the red pepper flakes to 1 teaspoon.
Keywords: rigatoni pasta, canned tomato sauce recipe
I’ve been cooking this canned tomato sauce recipe for a while now and using penne or rigatoni. My family loves it.
★★★★★