This heavenly sauce is the BEST PASTA SAUCE EVER! This Rosa Tomato Pasta Sauce recipe will help you create the best pasta sauce ever! It’s light and airy and simply heavenly!
Rosa pasta sauce is typically a tomato sauce that has heavy cream in it, giving it a ‘rosa’ (Italian for pink) color. But unlike the heavy cream version (which is also heavy and sluggish in texture), this light and airy version uses skim milk and low fat sour cream to bring you a healthier (yet super amazing tasting) sauce!
What ingredients do you need for this pasta sauce?
- Tomatoes
- Grape tomatoes
- Onion
- Anaheim pepper
- Garlic cloves
- EVOO
- Salt
- Pepper
- Skim milk
- Sour cream
If you plan to enjoy this sauce over pasta, don’t forget the noodles! And we like to top it with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.
I have a variety of tomatoes – everything from Grape and Sungrape tomatoes to Pink Heirloom tomatoes.
If you’ve never purchased a rosa pasta sauce, this sauce will put it to shame. Of course store bought sauces have a place and time, but this rosa tomato sauce is so easy to make, you’ll never look back.
To make this sauce you start by slicing all your veggies and putting them into a foil lined pan for roasting.
Then you drizzle a little olive oil over the tomatoes and veggies and bake them for half an hour until they are browned
Once browned, take the entire contents of the pan and put it into a blender with a little milk and sour cream. Don’t worry, there are full directions below.
After your milk and sour cream is added, you’re done! You’ve made a rosa tomato pasta sauce that isn’t heavy and still tastes amazing.
You can serve this over pasta with some parmesan and basil, or over some rice or grains (we’ve made it over couscous and brown rice with the Parmesan and basil, delicious all ways!).
If you don’t enjoy all of this sauce in one sitting, we like to portion it into 1 cup servings and then freeze it in a ziplock bag. That way you can eat it months down the line!
Each sauce may vary in color a little bit, depending on what kind of tomatoes you use. Since this recipe uses a combination of yellow and red tomatoes, this sauce is a bit more orange-toned. If you’re only using red tomatoes, it has more of a reddish-pink color.
No matter what color, this sauce is delicious!
Rosa Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tomatoes large - cut into large chunks
- 1.5-2 cups grape tomatoes
- 1 onion medium, cut into large chunks
- 1 Anaheim pepper less spicy than a jalapeno, seeded, cut into a few pieces
- 3 Garlic Cloves cut in half or quartered
- 2 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tablespoons salt
- 1 teaspoons pepper
- 1/4 Cup Skim Milk
- 1/4 Cup Sour Cream reduced fat
If serving over pasta:
- 3/4 lbs. pasta cooked
- 3 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese
- 1 Tablespoons Basil Fresh, finely sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425. Line a 9x13 baking dish with aluminum foil.
- Cut large tomatoes and put chunks into foil lined baking dish. Put grape tomatoes in baking dish followed by onion, garlic, Anaheim pepper pieces and garlic cloves. Sprinkle tomatoes and veggies with olive oil, then sprinkle salt and pepper (you can be liberal with the salt; this is the only time you're salting the sauce.)
- Roast tomatoes and veggies in the oven for 30 minutes. When the tops of the onions and tomatoes start to brown, remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Gently spoon or dump contents from the roast pan (minus the aluminum foil of course) into a food processor or blender. Pour in 1/4 cup skim milk and 1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream. Blend until smooth and creamy (about 3 minutes). If sauce is too thick, add 1/4 cup of water and blend again.
- Makes about 3 cups sauce. Store in air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze in zip lock bags for up to 4 months.
If serving with pasta:
- Cook pasta according to directions (I like to use vegetable bow-tie pasta). Then pour about a cup and a half of sauce onto the pasta and stir to combine. Pour pasta into serving dish, then sprinkle Parmesan cheese and chopped basil on top of the pasta. Spoon into serving bowls and enjoy!
Notes
Donna Keogh says
I used 1 1/2 tsp of salt and added 1 Tbl Italian spices, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp curry powder and another tsp of Hogans Chilli Sauce.
Sliced mushrooms were yum as well
Sweetphi says
Oh I love the modifications you made to this pasta sauce! Thanks for the feedback as well.
Lynn Lovejoy from Order in the Kitchen says
ooooh girl I’m definitely going to have to try this!!!
Sweetphi says
It’s kind of embarrassing how many times I have made this sauce…it’s just so delish and easy to make, and tastes 100 times better than a store bought one!
andrea rentea says
Actually had some of this most delicious amazing sauce of yours that you had made . We put it over fried eggplant. WOW, what an incredible flavor lift it gave everything. It is now a favorite in our house and will get made on a regular basis. The idea of being able to roast the veggies in the oven is so enticing.
Samina | The Cupcake Confession says
I think it’s about time to I devoured tomato and cloud’s baby stat! this sauce looks so incredibly delish, I can see myself eating pasta almost on a regular basis thanks to this sauce! And it is so easy to whip up. That will help me save a ton of time especially since I’ll be home late from college once it starts!!!
sweetphi says
Yes, girl, this pasta sauce, every night should definitely help with college lol 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Erin | The Law Student's Wife says
That first line CRACKED me up. Bring on the tomato cloud babies 🙂
sweetphi says
Lol, and yes, bring on the tomato cloud babies for this amazing sauce!
Karis says
Love the look of this sauce and it’d be perfect for a baked ravioli recipe I’ve been working on.
Sweetphi says
This would definitely be perfect over ravioli…and baked ravioli? I can’t wait to check that out-sounds super good!
Michelle Twin Mum says
That looks really good and so simple. I will give this a go, thanks, Mich x
Sweetphi says
You’re so welcome Mich, thanks for the comment 🙂 I definitely think you’ll love it, let me know how it turns out 🙂
suzanne3childrenandit says
Oh my goodness, this looks absolutely LUSH! And it’s lower in fat too – what’s not to like? Yummy 🙂
Sweetphi says
I love the way you described it as LUSH, that is the exact word I was looking for! This lower in fat sauce is definitely one that is a recipe to make 🙂
Andrea Rentea says
I couldn’t believe that there is actually a real rosa recipe. Always thought it was just a Knorr bag for making the sauce. Definitely will make it from scratch from now on. Thanks so much for the more low cal version.
Sweetphi says
Thank you for that lovely compliment! I’ll definitely have to make it for you, it is so yummy and fresh in flavors!!
Sonia (@Mummy_loves) says
This looks amazing! Those tomatoes look fab, I would love to grow my own; we used to when we were little and we always used to love picking them and having them for dinner 🙂
Sweetphi says
Aren’t fresh tomatoes the best? I love having them in my little yard and then using them for meals! Thanks for commenting!
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
If I come for dinner can we have this for an appetizer?
And then husband brownie for the main meal?
I would like that.
Sweetphi says
Haha! YES! Definitively, if you come for dinner that sounds like an awesome menu…I’m feeling like we need to make this happen!
Janel says
Yum! There is a vendor at the farmer’s market who sells baskets full of different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. I bet this would be excellent made with those.
Sweetphi says
This sauce would be absolutely perfect with heirloom tomatoes! I used one heirloom in the mix (the pink one in the picture that looks all funny) and I loved the the uniqueness of it! Whatever tomatoes you use, this sauce is fantastic 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Ashley says
Bahaha if tomatoes and clouds had a baby! I love it!
And I love the sound of this sauce – it looks fantastic!
Sweetphi says
Haha, thank you for finding that funny too 🙂 This sauce is definitely super delicious and a perfect way to use tomatoes!
June Baby says
That looks amazing! So creamy and fresh, mmm 🙂
Sweetphi says
That is the perfect way to describe this sauce, creamy and fresh! Thank you for commenting!