This all-season recipe for penne pomodoro has to be one of the quickest hot dinners you can possibly cook up. I love it when something this delicious can be made so easily. The simple tomato sauce involves crushing whole canned tomatoes, very few ingredients, and little to do. Did I mention delicious?
The best penne pomodoro I’ve ever had was in a little trattoria outside Naples on the way to Pompeii. It also had the simplest tomato sauce ever. In the spirit of the best and easiest, with this recipe, you can have a highly satisfying pasta on the table in as little as 15 minutes. It’s about the quickest, simplest tomato sauce you can make.
Penne pomodoro (PEN-neh – poh·moh·DOH·roh) or penne al pomodoro, is a popular Italian pasta dish made with dried tubular pasta and tomato sauce. Penne pasta gets it’s name from the Italian word for quill: penna, from which also came the writing pen.
Quick Overview of the Recipe
While the pasta is boiling, crush some whole canned tomatoes. Add olive oil and sea salt. Toss with pasta. Enjoy.
The Beauty of This Recipe
- Convenient – All the ingredients are pantry-friendly so they can always be ready at hand.
- Quick – You can have it ready in less than 20 minutes.
- The Convenience of Multiple Meals – Whether you need the whole can of tomatoes now or not, you can crush them all, use some now, and refrigerate the rest for another meal.
- A Repeat Favorite – We never tire of the deep delicious flavors of tomato pasta.
Ingredients
There are only a few essential ingredients to this recipe: good pasta, canned tomatoes, olive oil and sea salt — all stock items you can have perpetually on hand in the pantry. The rest is optional.
Add what strikes your fancy. On it’s own, penne pomodoro is naturally vegan, vegetarian and lactose-free. A few fresh basil leaves are great to add when available. I like to stir in ground almonds for a creamy effect. Or a pat of real butter in the winter. Parmesan is also a firm favorite.
Penne Pasta
Not all penne pasta is the same. Using quality pasta means great texture, and raises the quality and overall enjoyment of the whole dish. To help ensure your pasta holds its own with the most satisfying qualities, check out my tips on buying good dried pasta. If you don’t have penne pasta on hand, any short tubular pasta would be a good substitute.
Tomatoes (Pomodori)
It makes perfect sense to use fresh tomatoes during the summer months when ripe sweet tomatoes are for the taking. (Like we do in the quick fresh tomato sauce for our rigatoni pomodoro recipe.) The rest of the year, we use good quality canned whole peeled tomatoes for tomato sauce. They’re super convenient, and as it turns out, can be just as and sometimes more delicious.
SUMMERTIME? For a quick sauce using fresh tomatoes, try out Rigatoni Pomodoro.
Which Canned Tomatoes to Buy?
One of the best varieties of tomatoes for making sauce (pomodori da salsa) are San Marzano, which come from the Agro Sarnese-Nocerino area in southern Italy — an area near Naples blessed with sunshine and fertile soil from Mount Vesuvius. You can buy the San Marzano D.O.P. Agro Sarnese-Nocerino canned tomatoes online, or in most supermarkets. These are great sauce tomatoes.
Some other canned tomatoes you might try are Italian tomatoes originating from Puglia, or Californian grown Muir Glen and Bianco di Napoli brands.
Tip – Try out the different canned tomatoes available in your area to find your favorite brand. There can be big differences in quality and taste, so it helps to find a brand or two you like. Things like where the tomatoes were grown, in what kind of soil, how they were raised, when they were picked, and how the tomatoes were treated after being picked, make a difference in how much you enjoy your pasta dish.
Besides brand or farm, taste and good acidity also depend on each year’s harvest and the weather conditions that year. People have had to deal with this forever. And whether fresh or canned, there are some tomato correction secrets that can be of help. For instance:
Tip – If your tomatoes are bland and could use a little tang, a squeeze of lemon can really help.
Olive Oil
As a general rule, I use two kinds of olive oil. A good tasting extra virgin olive oil that I use for added flavor as a final condiment on salads, pastas or soups. And a more economical extra virgin olive oil that I use for sauteing, or in liberal amounts for sauces and soups. That way, I don’t spend a fortune, and still enjoy the benefits of olive oil. In this recipe, I use the more economical olive oil during cooking. Then, right before serving, I like to drizzle on my best olive oil a crudo (raw) as a flavorful finishing touch.
Add Creaminess and Depth
With Cheese
In Italy, a block of grana cheese, like Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, is typically grated on top before serving, or even stirred into the sauce. (Source for Italian Cheeses)
With Almond
However, at our house, the majority of the time we use almond flour (almond meal) in our penne pomodoro, as well as others tomato pasta dishes. We started out years ago on an epiphany, and have craved its beautiful taste and creaminess ever since. It also happens to be vegan and lactose-free.
I talk a little more of why I love almonds in tomato sauce in our Rigatoni Pomodoro recipe — check out the photos of how similar it looks to grated cheese. In the States I use Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour a lot. However, it’s also easy to make almond flour yourself (how to make almond flour).
Making Pomodoro Sauce
Authentic Italian tomato sauce comes in many forms. While it can be long and laborious to make, it can also be, and often is, made quickly. And typically with few ingredients, allowing the tomato’s full flavor to come forward.
The way this sauce comes together is very simple. You place the whole peeled canned tomatoes with their juices in a large bowl and crush them by hand. Done! Okay, if you prefer, you can use a potato masher or large fork.
By Hand or Potato Masher
Once they are crushed to your liking, the sauce is ready for use. That’s it! The easiest tomato sauce ever!
And in case you didn’t recognize it, this is the same way pizzaioli (pro pizza makers) make the simple sauce for their pizzas (and the recommendation of the Pizza Association Disciplinary in Naples, Italy). So of course you can use this for your homemade pizzas and pastas alike — one more thing to love about this treasure of a sauce.
Recipe for Penne Pomodoro
Ingredients
- 14 oz canned whole peeled tomatoes (The best quality plum tomatoes you can get. San Marzano DOP from the Agro Sarnese Nocerino area are ideal)
- 8oz, ½ lb penne pasta
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp kosher salt or table sea salt
- 10 leaves fresh basil (if available), bigger leaves torn up by hand
Options:
- 4 Tbsp almond flour (optional instead of cheese), superfine or fine, peeled/blanched, almond flour is ideal.
- Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (optional), freshly grated to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large covered pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce: Using a large deep bowl, simply crush the tomatoes in their juices, by hand or with a potato masher, until you are satisfied with the level of smoothness. You should have about 1½ cups of tomato sauce. Transfer the sauce to a big saute pan or skillet.
- As soon as the pasta water comes to a boil, cook the pasta in the salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente, tender yet still firm to the bite.
- While the pasta is cooking, bring the sauce to a simmer over medium low heat. Cook uncovered for about 5 minutes, or until most of the water evaporates. Stir in the olive oil, salt, basil, (and almond flour, if using), and turn off the heat.
- Drain the pasta, reserving a few tablespoons of pasta water. Toss the pasta with the sauce until evenly distributed. If too watery, turn the heat back on and cook and stir for a minute or two. If too thick, add some of the reserved pasta water, one tablespoon at a time and toss until the pasta is well coated.
- If using Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (see notes), sprinkle on top of each bowl. Buon appetito!
- Penne Pasta Substitutions: Any dried short tubular pasta works well. My preferences are rigatoni or tortiglioni.
- Cheese vs Almond Flour: Equally delicious. Use one or the other, not both.
- Other Ideas: Use this same tomato sauce on your next homemade pizza.
Nutrition Info: Click to Expand
More Tomato Lover Pasta Recipes
- Rigatoni Pomodoro – Made with a quick and easy tomato sauce using summertime fresh tomatoes.
- Pesto Trapanese – Siciliy’s red pesto – delicious and cool!
