Cook what you have
Store Cupboard Meals: Pasta With Tinned Tomatoes
A proper tomato sauce from a tin, garlic, and olive oil in 25 minutes. The store cupboard meal to make when the fridge is empty.
- TIME
- 30 min
- SERVES
- 4
The most useful of all store cupboard meals with tinned tomatoes is also the simplest: a tin of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and pasta. No fresh ingredients, no shopping, about 25 minutes. It is the meal for the night when the fridge is empty and ordering in feels like giving up.
The difference between this and a disappointing bowl of pasta is one technique, not one ingredient.
Simmer it longer than you think
Straight from the tin, tomatoes taste sharp, thin, and faintly metallic. Twenty minutes at a steady simmer changes them completely — the liquid reduces, the sugars concentrate, the colour deepens from bright red to brick, and the oil begins to separate at the edges of the pan. That separation is your signal that the sauce is done.
Most people stop at eight minutes and wonder why it tastes like a tin. This is the whole recipe.
Whole tomatoes beat chopped
Tinned whole plum tomatoes are usually better fruit than the pre-chopped variety, and often cheaper. Crush them against the side of the pan with a spoon as they cook, which gives a better, more varied texture than a uniform machine chop.
If sharpness remains after simmering, a teaspoon of sugar balances it. Taste before you add it — good tomatoes will not need it.
Make it a bigger meal
The sauce is a base, not a finished dish. Whatever tins and jars you have will work: a tin of tuna stirred through at the end, white beans for bulk, olives or capers for salt, anchovies melted in with the garlic for depth, or a spoonful of pesto off the heat.
A knob of butter stirred in at the end is the cheapest way to make it taste richer than it is.
When there is more in the kitchen than you think
If you have fresh tomatoes going soft rather than a tin, they want a slightly different approach — and they make a better sauce than firm ones. For other meals built entirely from what is already in the cupboard, 15-minute pantry dinners covers the fastest options, and easy sesame noodles is the answer when you want something that is not tomato-based.
From fridge to table
How to make it
- 01
Warm the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook gently for 2–3 minutes, until fragrant and pale gold. Do not let the garlic brown or it will turn bitter.
- 02
Tip in the tomatoes. If using whole plum tomatoes, crush them against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the dried herbs and a good pinch of salt.
- 03
Simmer uncovered for 18–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce darkens, thickens, and the oil starts to separate at the edges. This is the step that turns tinned tomatoes into sauce.
- 04
Taste. If it is sharp, add the sugar. Adjust salt and pepper.
- 05
Meanwhile cook the pasta in well-salted water until just short of al dente. Reserve a mug of pasta water before draining.
- 06
Add the pasta to the sauce with a splash of pasta water. Toss over the heat for a minute until the sauce clings rather than sits in a pool.
- 07
Finish with cheese, butter, or basil if you have any.
