This Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping is a budget friendly, hearty & delicious meal that the whole family will love!
Pasta dishes tend to be real crowd pleasers and this Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping is no exception. It’s cozy, deep dish pasta heaven and the whole family will love it.
It’s been a while since I shared a pasta dish. I think the last one to make it to the blog was my Creamy Vegan Pesto Pasta Salad and that was in the summer. It’s odd as pasta is a go to meal in our housed I have loads of different recipes I regularly make. I obviously need to get a move on and share them with you!
GIVE STALE BREAD A NEW LEASE OF LIFE
This Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping is easy enough for a mid week dinner, taking no more than about fifty minutes tops. It is also a fabulous way to give leftover stale bread a new garlicky and delicious lease of life. I don’t know about you but we always end up with a few slices that are past their best by the time we get to the end of a loaf.
How to make my Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping
- Make the sauce (it comes together in minutes)
- Cook the pasta in boiling water
- Add the crumb topping ingredients to a food processor and blitz until fine
- Mix sauce with drained pasta and spoon into a casserole
- Sprinkle over the crumbs
- And bake!
PERFECT FLAVOURS & TEXTURES
The tomato sauce is rich and deeply flavoured thanks to the addition of nutritional yeast and balsamic vinegar. Once baked together with the pasta and the garlicky crumbs, the flavours and textures are so good. The top crumbs become crunchy and golden and the ones underneath soak up some of the sauce. It’s such a good combo!
GREAT FOR FEEDING A CROWD
As well as being a great family meal, this recipe is perfect for those times when you are tasked with feeding a crowd. It makes a generously sized casserole full and can be easily doubled or tripled. It can also be made in advance. If you wish to do this, just get it all together in the casserole then refrigerate before the baking stage. When you are ready for it, bake as directed.
Hello stress free dinner!
Serve with a nice fresh, crispy salad and if you feel like splurging, a big glass of red wine too! ????????
This Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping is a real favourite here and I have been making it frequently. Even my very fussy teenage son eats it with no complaints. He also eats salad with it as long as I drizzle balsamic vinegar over it first. Now there’s a win. Moan free meals are always a bonus! ????
LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK
You must try this cozy tomatoey, crumbly, garlicky pasta bake, and when you do, let me know what you think in the comments below, or share a pic on Instagram. I am @avirtualvegan. Use the hashtag #avirtualvegan so I don’t miss them.
Tomato Pasta Bake with Garlicky Crumb Topping
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 500 g pasta use gluten-free pasta to make gluten-free, fusilli or rigatoni both work well.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil to make oil-free, just use a few drops of water instead
- 1 large onion
- 3 fat cloves of garlic
- 1 large can | 28fl oz/ 796mls crushed tomatoes You can sub this for passata or blend up a can of diced tomatoes until smooth if that is all you have
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 teaspoons mixed Italian dried herbs feel free to sub for any dried herbs you like
- ¼ cup | 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast adds depth of flavour to the sauce - DO NOT sub for any other type of yeast
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the topping
- 5 medium cut slices slightly stale bread | You can use a bit more if you have lots to use up or you can use a bit less | Use gluten-free bread to keep the recipe gluten-free
- 2 tablespoons olive oil optional but recommended
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Warm the olive oil in a pan then sauté the onions until just turning golden brown. Use a few drops of water instead of the olive if you want to keep this oil-free.
- Add the garlic and cook for one minute more.
- Add the tomatoes, chili, herbs, nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper and stir well. Leave to simmer on low while you cook the pasta.
- Cook pasta in a large pan of boiling water until just al-dente.
- While the pasta is cooking, break the bread up roughly with your hands and add to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, garlic and nutritional yeast. Process until fine crumbs. Set aside.
- Drain pasta then pour the sauce and stir well to combine.
- Pour the saucy pasta into a large casserole dish, smooth the top a bit with a spoon, then sprinkle over the breadcrumb mixture evenly.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until the crumb topping is golden and crunchy.
Notes
Estimated nutrition per serving:
This recipe has been entered into the Tinned Tomatoes Meat Free Monday Link Up.
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Victoria says
Oooh this was too good! I wasn’t sure what you meant by “mixed Italian dried herbs” so I used Italian seasoning. Also added the balsamic vinegar to the onions and garlic for a couple minutes to make them even more flavorful. So much flavor and I love the crunchy breadcrumbs (I used Panko).
Abby says
What do you think would be the best way to incorporate some veggies? I’m thinking some brocolli and/or spinach.
A Virtual Vegan says
You could add any veggies you like stirred through the sauce. Raw spinach would be good just stirred through when you mix the pasta with the sauce, and other things like broccoli, just break into small bite sized pieces. As it’s baked in the oven they should be fine going in raw. By the time it’s done they should be just right. Or if you prefer soft veggies, blanch them in boiling water before you stir them in.
Meggie says
Really, really, really good. I was short on time and supplies so just used jarred sauce and added the nutritional yeast to it, and made the topping per the recipe. My daughter and I both loved it! She had three helpings; I had two. So be careful, it’s addictive! She’s begged me to make it for Thanksgiving!
Emma Rose says
I think I will make this for dinner tomorrow! I will make a double batch to store some in the freezer, due with a baby any day now. How would you freeze this? Put it all together like you would but just dont put it in the oven? Or would you bake it and then freeze it? Obviously I have never made freezer meals ????
A Virtual Vegan says
I’m not sure how well this would freeze as I haven’t tried it. I’m not generally a fan of previously frozen pasta as it loses it’s texture and gets a big soggy. I think if it were me, I’d make and freeze the sauce alone, then cook the pasta when I needed it.
Victoria says
Can you sub bread crumbs for the stale bread slices? If so, how many cups?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could use bread crumbs. I don’t know how many cups it would be but it doesn’t really matter too much. Just use enough to cover the top.
Sheila Hoffman says
This looks great. I’m always looking for easy-to-make vegan items for our community of 25. My husband and I are the only vegans. Sometimes the others worry they’re not getting enough protein without meat and cheese. I’m curious how to figured your nutritional values as 17 g protein sounds high for pasta. Just curious. I’m sure it’ll be great. Thanks.
A Virtual Vegan says
I use an online nutritional calculator that comes with my recipe card software. I also just re-checked it before I replied with Cronometer and My Fitness Pal and with both of those, the protein content for this recipe comes out even higher than 17g. Literally everything we eat contains protein. It is virtually impossible to not eat enough protein per day if you eat adequate calories. Pasta is pretty high in protein with 7.5g per cup for wholewheat and 7g per cup for regular white and nutritional yeast alone has 3g of protein per tablespoon. It’s very easy to eat your protein requirements without even trying, as this meal shows. Hope that helps and that you enjoy the recipe!
Sheila Hoffman says
Thanks so much for the helpful response. I’ve been vegan since 1990 and am well aware that everything has protein and how easy it is to get what we need. But when a friend says “what’s the source” “that sounds too high” I had to ask. Thanks for taking time to make a reply.
Sheila Hoffman says
Last night was our community dinner. As promised it was easy to make and a crowd-pleaser. It came out great and everyone loved it. I think for my taste I’d prefer a higher tomato to pasta ratio. For the topping I used a large bag of garlicky croutons from Costco and they worked well with the nutritional yeast and olive oil as topping.
My only reason I gave the recipe a 4 instead of 5 is the quantity indicator is way off. I made the recipe using your slider for 20 people. Cool to have the slider. I think that the initial 5 servings using a 500g box of penne is extremely low. I’d same more like double that. I made 4 pans based on the 5 servings per pan and only used 2 pans worth. So I fed 20 on the initial recipe doubled.
Thanks. I’ll be looking for more recipes on your site for community meals.
I’ll be curious how well it freezes and reheats. If I remember, I’ll write back with that report.
Tracy says
I found your site after googling vegan pasta breadcrumbs and was happily surprised that I had all the ingredients on hand to try this recipe. (I used panko breadcrumbs which I think added to the flavour). I used a little more pasta than was called for as I had two opened bags and wanted to use it up. Even with the extra pasta it was delicious. Both my kids (very picky eaters!!) asked for seconds, and my husband and I had two servings, and there’s still almost half a casserole dish left for lunch tomorrow. I will definitely make this again!
A Virtual Vegan says
That’s awesome Tracy. I’m glad you found me and that you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for stopping by to leave feedback. I really appreciate it!