Fettuccine with Tomato Sauce

This recipe of fettuccine with tomato sauce is a hearty, comfort food to satisfy your pasta craving. 

A simple dish, with simple flavors, you can make fettuccine with tomato sauce any night of the week. While this recipe takes a little longer to make than other pasta meals, coming in at around 45 minutes, you’ll be thankful you took the time to make it.

Fettuccine with tomato sauce makes a wonderful Sunday dinner, or serve this recipe at your next family and friends get-together.

With flavors reminiscent of American goulash, fettuccine with tomato sauce warms the soul on a cold wintery night. Of course, a big plate of this pasta on a hot summer night tastes just as delicious.

Try this recipe with a side of savory homemade garlic bread.

Fettuccine with Tomato Sauce Ingredients

The 45-minute cook time of this pasta-based meal belies the simple ingredients, most of which you may already have on-hand. Moreover, this recipe for fettuccine with tomato sauce calls for baking that accounts for more than half the cook time.

Here is the list of ingredients you will need for this recipe:

• Fettuccine egg noodles, 16oz, cooked according to package instructions - Heartier egg noodles hold up well in this tomato-based sauce as well as during the baking process. You could also use tagliatelle or wheat-based noodles, such as ziti, elbow or rigatoni.

• Ground beef, 1lb - Lending a dose of protein, ground beef imparts the meaty stick-to-your-ribs goodness to this recipe. Organic grass-fed beef is the only type of meat we buy, though the flavor is not all that different when using conventional ground beef.
• Yellow onion, diced to about ¼ inch - When cooked together, savory yellow onion brings out the natural flavors of the ground beef. It is the buttery flavor profile of yellow onion that creates the comfort food status of this meal.
• Garlic powder, ½ teaspoon - Delectable as it is flavorful, the richness of garlic powder stands out in this dish. If you’ve followed along with past posts, you’ll know we highly recommend McFadden Farm 100% Organic Garlic Powder that you can purchase from McFadden Farm website or on the McFadden Farm Amazon store. It is truly some of the best garlic in the world, grown in the U.S.A.

• Oregano, ½ teaspoon - Oregano may be the star of this dish. Just a little produces a knockout punch to the tastebuds. (Okay, it’s not that dramatic. This is only food, after all.) You can try fresh oregano, but this recipe is based on dried oregano.
• Diced tomatoes, two 14.5oz cans - Given the large quantity of thick fettuccine egg noodles, two cans of diced tomatoes evens out the noodle to tomato ratio.
• Tomato sauce, 14.5oz can - To keep this dish moist whilst baking, one can of tomato sauce, combined with the two cans of diced tomatoes, ensures the dish won’t dry out.
• Salt and black pepper, to taste - Salt and pepper comes down to a matter of seasoning while browning the ground beef as well as once it is plated. Salt enhances all the other flavors and black pepper adds a bit of spice without heat.

Variations:

• For a thicker, slightly sweeter sauce, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of tomato paste.
• Top this fettuccine with tomato sauce with mozzarella for a creamier mouthfeel.
• Substitute fettuccine egg noodles for your favorite noodle.

Equipment needed:

• Saute pan - Some people don’t like stainless steel because they think it’s challenging to clean food that has been cooked on. However, with a quick soak while you eat, stainless steel pans are the best. This stainless steel cookware set could last you a lifetime if you take care of it.
• Roasting pan - Porcelain roasting / bakeware provides even heat conductivity, which is just one of the many reasons to have one on hand. Pilivuyt rectangular roasting pan, still made in France to this day, won’t let you down. Plus, food looks amazing in their pans.
• Serving utensils - Serve your meals in style with stainless steel kitchen utensils.

How to Make Fettuccine with Tomato Sauce

1. Brown the ground beef in a sauté pan. At the same time, begin bringing water to a boil so the noodles can cook while the sauce warms later in the recipe.

2. Salt and pepper the ground beef and add the onion. Cook until the onion is translucent.

3. Deglaze the pan by adding the tomato sauce. Stir to combine.

4. Add the diced tomatoes. Stir to combine.

5. Add the oregano and garlic powder. Stir to combine. Heat on low until warm (about five minutes). While the sauce warms up, and to ensure the noodles stay al dente after baking, cook the noodles a couple minutes less than the package directions. Before combining noodles with the sauce, this is an opportunity to taste test and determine if more seasoning is needed.

6. In a roasting pan, stir to combine the sauce and noodles.

7. Bake covered at 350 for 20 minutes.

8. Uncover and return to the oven. Bake for another 10 minutes. For a crispy top, broil for 3-5 minutes. Do not walk away, as broiling is a quick process. Remove from the oven.
9. Serve immediately.

Serving Suggestions

Fettuccine with tomato sauce can be served any night of the week as well as for special occasions. This recipe pairs well with a slice of homemade garlic bread, 

• Appetizer - At your next party, whip up a batch of fettuccine with tomato sauce as an appetizer. A hearty pasta tastes great next to a light quinoa salad or perfectly creamy deviled eggs.

• Entree - On its own, an entree of fettuccine with tomato sauce is a very filling comfort food. Serve this entree with a side of roasted veggies, such as broccoli and cauliflower.

How to Store Leftover Fettuccine with Tomato Sauce

Pasta noodles are high on the glycemic index, increasing the sugar content the longer pasta is cooked. Reheating leftover pasta noodles further increases the glycemic index. Additionally, reheated noodles tend to get harder as they cool, which doesn’t taste great. Because of this, it is best to consume this dish immediately. 

That said, egg noodles are a little more forgiving than wheat-based pasta, so you may be able to get away with storing leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a day or two and reheating the dish in the microwave.

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