Tomato Basil Pasta (5 Ingredients)

Five ingredients only if you count honestly

The title says five ingredients: pasta, canned whole tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and basil. The working list also has salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and Parmesan. Salt is not optional if the pasta water is bland, because an unsalted noodle tastes flat no matter how good the tomatoes are. Parmesan is optional. Pepper flakes are optional. Call it five if you skip the cheese and the flakes. Call it what it is if you do not.

The cost on the card is a planning split of that list across four plates. Olive oil and a wedge of cheese are where a "cheap" pasta stops being cheap. A modest pour of oil and a spoon of cheese you already own keeps the figure meaningful. A new bottle of finishing oil does not. The content disclaimer is the limit on every price on this site.

Slow garlic, crushed fruit, short simmer

Slice the garlic thin. It should fry gently in the oil with the pepper flakes until the edges go gold, several minutes, not thirty seconds of violence. Burnt garlic is the failure mode, and it tastes bitter in a way that basil cannot cover. If you smell it turn acrid, stop, dump the oil, and start that step again. The tomatoes are still in the can.

Whole peeled tomatoes go in next, crushed by hand or with a spoon so the pieces are uneven. A 28-ounce can and a quarter pound of pasta per person, roughly, is the balance in this list (twelve ounces of pasta for four). Simmer about fifteen minutes so the juice thickens. You are not building a long Sunday sauce. You are getting the tomatoes to taste cooked.

Canned tomatoes are a cooked product from a factory process. They are not the same risk as a jar of tomatoes you canned at home without a tested method. If a commercial can is swollen, leaking, or spurts forcefully, discard it unopened or without tasting. That advice is ordinary can safety, not a slight on the brand.

The cloudy cup of pasta water

Boil the spaghetti in well-salted water. Pull it a minute or two before the package's softest time. Save a cup of the water before you drain. The starch in that water is what lets the oily tomato coat the noodles when you toss. Add a splash, toss hard, add cheese if you are using it, toss again. If the pan looks greasy and the noodles look dry, you needed more of the cloudy water. If the pan looks like soup, you added too much and a minute of heat will tighten it.

This is a technique you can see. It does not require a citation to be useful, and this page will not invent a study to dignify it. Save the water. Use it.

Basil is a raw herb here

Tear it over the pasta off the heat. Heat turns it dark and dull. If you have no fresh basil, a small pinch of dried basil stirred into the sauce earlier is a different flavor, not a match. Do not pretend otherwise. If the basil in the fridge is black and wet, compost it. Slimy herbs do not become safe because they are expensive.

Cheese, salt, and the rest of the wedge

A quarter cup of grated Parmesan is plenty for the pan. Pre-grated tubs often include starch so the shreds do not clump, which can make the sauce slightly chalky. A chunk you grate is the simpler ingredient. Refrigerate the leftover chunk. Hard cheeses last longer than soft ones, but mold on the surface of a grated tub is a reason to throw the tub out. Do not pick around fuzzy cheese in a pouch.

Sodium adds up from the pasta water, the canned tomatoes, and the cheese. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025, treat sodium as a nutrient to limit. Salt the water enough to season the noodles, then taste the finished bowl before you salt it again.

Leftovers and the brick problem

Tomato-oiled pasta welds itself together in the fridge. Loosen it with water in a covered skillet, not with a sad microwave minute that leaves the center cold. USDA FSIS wants perishable leftovers refrigerated within two hours, one hour above 90°F, in shallow containers. Use most cooked leftovers inside three to four days. Reheat to 165°F. Pasta is not a soup, so you will not boil it like a gravy, but it still has to get hot throughout.

Freezing dressed pasta is a quality compromise. The noodles go mealy. If you freeze anything, freeze extra sauce without the noodles, flat, dated. A freezer at 0°F keeps food safe while quality drops, which is the FSIS distinction. Thaw sauce in the refrigerator and boil a fresh handful of pasta.

What not to add

A splash of wine is a common extra. Skip it if you do not drink, if children are eating, or if you do not want to open a bottle for one tablespoon. The alcohol does not "burn off" on a reliable schedule in a home skillet, and this page will not claim a percentage. The sauce is complete without it.

Cream, sugar, and a handful of random vegetables turn this into a different dinner. Zucchini can go in if it is still firm, added to the sauce so it softens. A liquefied zucchini from the back of the drawer should be discarded, not rescued.

Garlic-in-oil is not a jar you store

You are cooking the garlic in oil and eating it now. You are not making a garlic oil to leave on the counter. CDC's botulism page says to refrigerate homemade oils made with garlic or herbs and to throw away unused ones after four days. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says garlic-in-oil mixtures are a botulism risk at room temperature and should be refrigerated at 40°F or below for no more than four days, or frozen. This pasta does not need a stored oil. If you have leftover flavored oil from the pan, refrigerate it and use it quickly or discard it. Do not give it a decorative bottle.

Further reading: CDC, "Home-Canned Foods" botulism prevention (garlic-and-herb oils); National Center for Home Food Preservation, "Freezing Garlic-In-Oil"; USDA FSIS leftover guidance.