Carrots make this tomato sauce creamy, child-friendly and save you the extra sugar. 120 g of carrots provide the natural sweetness that balances the tomato acidity, without children tasting the vegetable. The sauce comes together in 25 minutes on every model (TM7, TM6, TM5, TM31).
We have been cooking this sauce regularly for years. The combination of fresh tomatoes, carrots and basil works for pasta, pizza, bakes and as a base for Bolognese. The basic recipe stays the same, only the use varies.
The Best Thermomix® Tomato Pasta Sauce
Ingredients 0 / 11 ✓
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 onion
- 120 grams carrots
- 30 grams olive oil
- 50 grams tomato paste
- 500 grams tomatoes
- 1 tsp dehydrated vegetable broth try homemade Thermomix® vegetable paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 pinch black pepper
Instructions 0 / 6
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1
Knoblauch vorbereiten.
Peel garlic clove and add to mixing bowl.
- 1 garlic clove
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2
Zerkleinern.
Peel and halve the onion, add and chop for 3 sec./speed 5.
- 1 onion
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3
Karotten.
Peel carrots, add and shred for 5 sec./speed 5. Push down with the spatula.
- 120 grams carrots
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4
Dünsten.
Add olive oil and tomato paste and steam for 4 min./120 °C (TM31 Varoma)/speed 1.
- 30 grams olive oil
- 50 grams tomato paste
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5
Kochen.
Wash and halve tomatoes, add with remaining ingredients and cook without inserted measuring cup for 15 min./100 °C/speed 1. Use the cooking basket as a splash guard.
- 500 grams tomatoes
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6
Pürieren.
Insert measuring cup and blend for 45 sec./speed 6 - 9, gradually ascending.
- 1 tsp dehydrated vegetable broth
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 pinch black pepper
Tip: Alternatively, you can also use canned tomatoes.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Carrots instead of extra sugar
Tomatoes naturally carry acidity. Without something to balance it, the sauce tastes sharp. Many recipes use 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar. We use 120 g of carrots. They provide around 6 g of natural sugar (USDA FoodData Central, 2024), balance the acidity and make the sauce creamier thanks to their pectin content.
Children eat the sauce without noticing the vegetable. The carrots are finely chopped and become invisible once blended. The flavour stays tomatoey, the texture turns more velvety than without carrots. This works even with fussy eaters.
Speed 6 to 9 step by step, not straight to 10
The recipe card calls for 45 seconds, increasing the speed gradually from 6 to 9. There is a reason for this. Blending straight away at the highest speed destroys the pectin structure in the tomato cell walls too much (Harold McGee, “On Food and Cooking”, 2004). The sauce turns thin instead of creamy.
Increasing step by step keeps enough structure for binding. You start at speed 6, increase by one speed every 10 to 15 seconds and finish at speed 9. The sauce stays smooth and clings to the pasta. Going straight to speed 10 makes it watery.
Simmering basket as a splash guard, measuring cup stays out
The card says “cook for 15 minutes without the measuring cup in place”. This is not carelessness. Steam needs to be able to escape during cooking. With the measuring cup in place, pressure builds up and hot tomatoes splash out when you open the lid.
Instead, we place the simmering basket upside down on the lid. It acts as a splash guard, lets steam escape through the holes and keeps tomato splatters off the kitchen ceiling. Both tricks together (no measuring cup, simmering basket on top) keep the kitchen clean.
TM31 uses Varoma instead of 120 degrees
The steaming step says “4 minutes / 120°C (TM31: Varoma) / speed 1”. TM31 owners do not have a 120-degree setting. The highest setting on the TM31 is Varoma, which corresponds to roughly 120°C in the closed mixing bowl (Vorwerk TM31 instruction manual, 2004).
TM5, TM6 and TM7 use 120°C directly. Both methods create roasted aromas when steaming onions, garlic and tomato purée. The result tastes the same. The model differences only concern the temperature setting, not the flavour.
Fresh tomatoes or tinned tomatoes
The card uses 500 g of fresh tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes taste fruitier and lighter. Tinned tomatoes (chopped or sieved) are more concentrated and savoury, because they lose 20 to 30 per cent of their water content during preserving (Lebensmittel-Lexikon, 2024).
Both work. With tinned tomatoes, reduce the cooking time to 10 to 12 minutes instead of 15 minutes. They are already softer and need less time to reduce. The flavour becomes more intense, the texture thicker. This is a matter of preference, not quality.
Keeping: fridge, freezing, preserving
In the fridge the sauce keeps for 3 to 4 days in a clean screw-top jar. Frozen in portion tubs (100 ml is one serving of pasta) it stays usable for 3 to 6 months.
Preserved, the sauce keeps for up to 12 months stored cool and dark (Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung, 2023). To do this, fill the hot sauce into sterilised screw-top jars, seal the lids tightly and sterilise for a further 30 minutes at 100°C in the oven or steam cooker. A vacuum forms as it cools, recognisable by the lid pulling in.
4 servings of sauce are enough for about 400 g of cooked pasta (100 g per person as a main course). For larger quantities, double the ingredients. The sauce works as a base for Spaghetti Bolognese, lasagne or as a pizza sauce on homemade pizza dough.
Basil fresh or dried
The card uses 1 teaspoon of dried basil. This works reliably and is available all year round. Fresh basil brings a more intense aroma but turns bitter when cooked along.
With fresh basil, fold in 5 to 6 leaves with the spatula after blending. Do not cook them along. This way the essential oils are preserved. Dried basil copes with heat better and is added during cooking with the remaining ingredients.
If you love pasta, try our Carbonara, Mac & Cheese, the Mediterranean pasta salad or the One-Pot Pasta too.
San Marzano, sliced garlic and olive oil at the end
Goes well with: Spaghetti and Gnocchi.
Also worth a try: Peanut sauce, Thermomix®.
Three classic Italian touches lift the sauce up another level. San Marzano tinned tomatoes contain 20 to 30 per cent less water than ordinary tinned tomatoes and bring a stronger, less acidic tomato note (Consorzio San Marzano DOP, 2024). With the garlic, it helps to press the clove briefly with the flat side of the knife before adding it, rather than chopping it in the mixing bowl. This releases the aromas but keeps them milder. And fold in 1 tablespoon of good olive oil with the spatula only after blending. This way it emulsifies cold with the sauce and gives a velvety texture, instead of losing its fruity note while cooking along.
