Carrot-based Pasta Sauce

A subscription to Odd Bunch (link at right) resulted in obtaining a few carrots the size of my femurs. 

To avoid waste, I looked up pasta sauces made primarily from carrots. After a few tweaks, I settle on the version below. Blender required. 🥕🥕

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lb carrots, peeled and chopped

2 cups vegetable stock

1 can of tomato paste (156 ml)

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Parmesan cheese, as garnish

In a large pot or skillet, add olive oil over medium heat.

Add carrots and onions and cook for 10 minutes until carrots start to caramelize and brown. (Edit, Sept. 20th, 2026: I've taken to giving the carrots a head start by a few minutes and early results suggest this is the way to go.) 

Add garlic and tomato paste. Stir together for a minute.

Add stock and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down to low, cover, and continue to simmer until carrots are tender, probably another 10 minutes.

Let the sauce cool, then transfer to a traditional blender and blend until completely smooth. Transfer back to your pot and stir in the black pepper and red pepper flakes.

Most of the recipes I found served this over penne. We decided to try it with gnocchi, and that worked out great.

Add-on, Nov. 2nd, 2026: Adding water may be required for the blending part to work, so I made an extra cup of veggie broth for that process, but ended up not using the full amount. I was closer to 3/4 of a cup.