A pasta bake with plenty of thick, creamy tomato sauce….made with NO CREAM….all in ONE POT! Even the pasta is cooked right in the pan with the sauce! Creamy Tomato Pasta Bake with Chicken is the ultimate recipe for low-effort comfort food to feed a family or group of friends.
My mother makes an incredible Japanese pasta bake called Makaroni Guratan, which is basically Macaroni Gratin pronounced with a Japanese accent. It is soooo typical of the Japanese to change the spelling of English words to the way Japanese pronounce it. It’s an endless source of amusement for me!
As the name implies, it is macaroni baked in a classic french “gratin” style with a creamy white sauce made from a roux. It was a childhood favourite and I used to nag my mother to make it frequently, but she only ever treated us with it for special occasions. So I got to know Makaroni Guratan as a special occasion dish.
As I grew older and started to cook, I realised why she only made it for special occasions….because it is such an effort to make! It requires four separate pots/pans/dishes. FOUR!! A pot to cook the pasta, a saucepan to make the white sauce, a fry pan to sauté the chicken and mushroom and a baking dish to bake it all in.
Shoot me now.
It is worth the effort. But I only make it for special occasions…..(they do say daughters turn into their mothers….)
But I love saucy pasta bakes, so I invented my own creamy tomato one-pot version which is really convenient for midweek meals. I don’t like to cook with cream for midweek meals so this is made using a simple roux base (don’t let that fancy sounding word scare you, it’s just butter + flour that is used as a thickener for the sauce). Also, if you wanted to make a pasta bake as saucy as I’ve made this, you would need three cartons of cream….my arteries are hardening just at the thought!
This pasta bake is based on the same technique I use for my One Pot Saucy Creamy Mac and Cheese. It is not quite as saucy so it holds together better when you serve it, as opposed to the Mac and Cheese which collapses into a pile of cheesy creamy deliciousness.
I hope you consider trying it! It’s a great one for midweek. 🙂 I mean, seriously…check out all that creamy tomato sauce!! – Nagi
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One Pot Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta Bake (no cream)
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 small onion , diced
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 6 tbsp / 1/2 cup plain flour
- 2 cups milk (500ml)
- 2 cups tomato passata (500ml) (Note 1)
- 1 cup water (or chicken or vegetable broth) (250ml)
- 2 tsp salt
- Black pepper
- 3 cups dried ziti / penne pasta (uncooked)
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- Pepper
Garnish (optional)
- Fresh basil leaves
- Freshly grated parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
- Melt butter in a deep fry pan or skillet (Note 2) over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes until translucent. Add the flour and stir to combine, then cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the milk and whisk for 1 minute, in small circles around the fry pan, until it starts to thicken. Then add the tomato passata, water, salt and pepper. Increase the heat to medium high and cook for around 5 minutes or until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon (see photo below). Whisk occasionally for the first 3 minutes, then whisk constantly for the last 2 minutes.
- Do a taste test and add 1 to 2 tsp of sugar if it is a bit sour (depends on quality of passata you use).
- Add the ziti/penne, chicken and cheddar cheese and mix through. Leave it to cook for around 1 minute on the stove, then take it off the stove.
- Scatter with mozzarella cheese. Cover with a lid or foil (Note 3) and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the lid/foil and bake for a further 5 minutes. Rest for 5 minutes before serving, garnished with fresh basil leaves and grated parmesan, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
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Be amazing to add a section on how to cook ahead. I’ve been scratchin my head trying to figure out how to do it. Thanks. Love all your recepies x
I make this with pre-cooked lentil pasta and it’s so so good even my fussy eating daughter loves it (she doesn’t know that it’s not regular pasta!)
I LOVED this recipe! I had never cooked with Passata before and googled “passata recipe”. This was the first that came up and I had all the ingredients. I was a little cheeky and added a dash of white wine. Will be making again and again!
Hi am able to freeze this recipe please ?
Hi Shirley – yes you can definitely freeze. N x
I LOVEEEE this recipe!!
I’ve done it several times now, but I’ve realized that the pasta should be pre-cooked or else it will be so raw (as it happened to me the first time I did it😅).
I agree, the pasta needs to be precooked for good results! The recipe is definitely a keeper!!
We cooked this yesterday evening. The sauce was full of flavour. However, we followed the cooking times and found that the pasta was far from cooked properly! Other than that the dish was lovely, but definitely needs an extra 10 minutes in the oven, or to pre-cook the pasta.
Sorry you had issues here Dan – soundalike your oven may run a little on the cool side if it took longer! N X
Yum – Such a brilliant way to use up leftover roast chicken. Hubby had about 3 bowls of it. This ones a keeper! Thanks Nagi
This is a winner – simple, easy & full of flavor. Easy to adapt – but yummy as is! Thanks Nagi
I just christened my new Le Creuset casserole pot with this – this recipe is a go-to in our household but I’ve adapted it slightly to use evaporated milk, jarred pasta sauce, long shelf life Tegel precooked and sliced chicken (I tend to keep a packet in the fridge because it’s so versatile) and I also like to add half a bag of baby spinach for maximum vegetableness 🙂
I also find it takes much longer to cook, about 40 minutes in total but it’s well worth it! Tonight I added some Worcestershire, a half teaspoon of hot paprika and some fresh thyme and it was SO GOOD.
It’s definitely comfort food – 20 minutes of prep in front of the stove and I always add the cheese on top after is mostly cooked but pulling out a hot, bubbly, pot of carbohydratey tomato cheesy goodness is always satisyfying!
Can this work with spiral pasta instead of penne/ziti? My son is not a fan of penne or any kind of thick pastas
Hi May – yes it will!! Enjoy! N x
Delish! Tastes like jarred pasta bake sauce but soooo much better. Took a bit longer to cook the pasta than the recipe described but it was worth the one-pot! 😉
This had great flavor but the pasta was not cooked in this time frame. It was hard still..
3 cups dried ziti / penne pasta – does this mean uncookedpasta or pre-cooked and drained?
Hi Bob! Uncooked 🙂 Just added that in the recipe so there’s no confusion – N x
That’s what I did but the pasta was a little chewy. It was gluten free pasta so maybe that was the reason. We still enjoyed the dish.
I got a regular ziti and at 20 min it was still not fully cooked. I added 20 more min and it was done.
Hey, We use gf pasta as well and I have to pre cook it a little:) I add less liquid to the main dish though. So perfect!
If I don’t have penne pasta, what other shape pasta would you recommend I could use?
Hi would like to try this recipe but would it be possible for you to give me the measurements in grams or mls instead of cups please? Many thanks.
Can I make this the night before, cooking everything minus putting it in the oven and then put it in the oven the next day?
Amazing ! So easy to make ! I substituted the chicken for spinach and added some parmesan aswell (we love cheese) and was delish! And triple bonus to being yum ! Minimal dishes ! And the kids (2&6) loved it ! Adding to my collection.
Perfect Rebekah! N x
You mention pepper in the recipe but not what kind and it’s never mentioned in the recipe steps when to add it. DId anyone else notice this?
Hi Jenn, just regular black pepper – it’s added in step 3 🙂 N x
Giving this a try for dinner tonight, but wondering what the gram sizes would be for the pasta, chicken and cheese?
Hi Yinz, let me confirm and come back to you on that! N x
Yet another brilliant recipe that is simple to cook, and makes me look like a hero. This is another one added to my repertoire. Thank you again Nagi!!
This recipe is absolutely amazing! I always revert to this recipe when I’m craving a delicious comforting pasta dish! Thank you!!
You’re so welcome Andrea!!