How To Make Top Chef Star Tom Colicchio's 4-Ingredient Pasta Sauce

For many people, pasta with tomato sauce is an easy, comforting meal that they know they can rely on when things are hectic or they are short on time. The ingredients to make it are available at almost every grocery store, it can be expanded upon in endless ways with additions like meat or vegetables, and the most time-consuming part is generally boiling the water. 

You would think that there is no real difference between buying canned sauce and making your own at home, but you would be wrong. According to SF Gate, homemade pasta sauce is almost always the healthier option, as many canned sauces have added preservatives, salt, and sugar. Making pasta sauce at home is relatively simple as well, but with so many recipes available, making sure you end up with a tasty and flavorful sauce can be a challenge. Luckily for us, Top Chef star and restaurateur Tom Colicchio has shared his four-ingredient pasta sauce recipe, which is already proving itself to be a hit.

In mid-March, Tom Colicchio put out an offer on Twitter to answer any cooking questions his fans had (via Today). Among the questions posed was one follower requesting for a pasta sauce recipe for their 11-year-old daughter, a Top Chef devotee, to make. The tweet stipulated that their cupboard was pretty bare at the moment, and the only ingredients they had on hand he thought would be useful were canned tomatoes, onion, and fresh basil. Colicchio quickly responded with a simple tomato sauce recipe that many other fans loved and tweeted they would soon make at home.

Per the recipe from Tom Colicchio's Twitter, to make his four-ingredient sauce you will need onion, olive oil, canned tomatoes, and fresh basil. First, he calls for you to finely dice your onion and cook until soft in the olive oil. Then, add the tomatoes and cook this mixture slowly for 30 minutes or so. Colicchio advises readers to let the sauce cook longer if they prefer a thicker consistency. Once the sauce is done, he recommends adding the basil and some salt and pepper to your personal taste. 

The parent who sent out the initial request was thrilled with the recipe, stating that their daughter was going to "flip out" when she found out that Cholicchio responded and gave her advice (via Fox News).