30-Minute Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce

Looking for a unique flavor for pasta night? This Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce is perfectly creamy and wonderfully balanced between savory and sweet, making it the best way to switch it up from your classic marinara.

While I love a good hack or shortcut in the kitchen, there is undeniably no comparison between jarred and homemade sauces.

With just 9 simple ingredients and 30 minutes, you’ll have a yummy pasta sauce that the whole family will enjoy. It’s great on any pasta of your choice, long or short, or on a number of other dishes!

As a mom-on-the-go who loves to sneak in hidden veggies, I love this quick, simple, and crowd-pleasing sauce!

And if you’re loving this pasta sauce without tomato and want to try out more similar recipes, check out this Creamy Carrot Pasta Sauce next!

Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce Ingredients

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Here’s everything you need:

• Sweet potatoes.
• Garlic. Fresh whole cloves is best! Is you’re using pre-minced, use a heaping tablespoon.
• Shallots.
• Olive oil.
• Salt & pepper.
• Vegetable broth. You can buy it or easily make your own vegetable broth.
• Milk.
• Parmesan cheese. Measure this with your soul but add at least 1/3 cup. You can use already grated or you can grate or shred it yourself.

Creamy Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce Tips and Tricks

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Prep Your Veggies First

Peel your sweet potatoes, garlic, and shallots. I like to slice my shallots in half (it makes them much easier to peel!) but keep your garlic whole.

You’ll need two large shallots and four cloves of garlic. As for the sweet potato, you want roughly 1 pound. It’s always best practice to weigh your produce for accuracy in this recipe.

If you don’t have a kitchen scale and didn’t weigh them at the store, a very general rule of thumb is that a large sweet potato is about 8 ounces. So, for this recipe, you will need approximately 2 large sweet potatoes.

Cut the sweet potatoes into smaller chunks to help speed up their cooking time. While the chunks do not have to be perfectly uniform, it’s best to keep them roughly equal in size so their cooking time doesn’t vary wildly.

The chunks should be roughly 1.5-2 inches in diameter, and no thicker than 1 inch. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t stress over this too much! Think chunks that can easily be eaten in one or two bites.

Use a Large Baking Sheet

The idea here is to have enough room for all of the vegetables to lay out flat, without stacking on top of one another. Pictured, I used an 18×26-inch baking pan, but you can also use a 16×22 or even 13×18 and still have plenty of room.

Spread your sweet potato chunks, peeled garlic cloves, and halved shallots to your baking pan in a single layer.

Use Clean Hands to Toss

Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper to the baking sheet overtop of your vegetables.

Then, use clean hands or two large spoons to toss, ensuring they are all equally coated in oil and seasoned with the salt and pepper.

Once you are confident that they are coated, add the baking sheet to the top rack of your oven at 425°F. Roast for 20-25 minutes until the sweet potatoes are fork-tender.

You may get some darkening or browning on the garlic and shallots, and that’s okay!

Blend the Roasted Vegetables

Once your vegetables are roasted and the sweet potato is fork-tender, carefully add them to a high-powered blender or food processor. Please bear in mind that they are very hot!

Add the vegetable broth, milk, and Parmesan cheese to the food processor. You can set aside a handful of Parmesan cheese to use later to garnish, or, if you’re a cheese lover like me, you can add all 1/3 cup of cheese to the blender and add a little extra on top. 😉

Blend on high until completely smooth. This may take up to 3 minutes, depending on your equipment.

Serving Your Creamy Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce

This sweet potato sauce was designed to be served over pasta. It’s delicious over both short and long pasta. Everything from penne and gemelli to spaghetti and fettuccine!

The pasta can easily cook within the time that your sweet potatoes, shallots, and garlic are roasting for a quick and easy 30-minute meal. It can also be used as a substitute in any cheesy baked pasta dish in place of marinara or spaghetti sauce.

You can also opt to make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the fridge for pasta night.

That being said, this versatile sauce is delicious on more than just pasta. It can be served over Focaccia bread, on flatbread, or smeared on a sandwich to add a touch of sweetness.

Some of my fave starters to serve up with this sauce and pasta are:

• Olive Oil and Balsamic Bread Dip
• Texas Toast

Storing and Reheating Leftover Sweet Potato Sauce

This creamy veggie-based pasta sauce will last up to 5 days in the refrigerator when stored in an airtight container. It can also be frozen for up to 4 months.

The best way to reheat this sauce is in a pot. If you have already added the sauce to the pasta and want to heat it up together as a unit, you can use either the microwave or the oven.

To reheat in the microwave, cover, and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes, stopping and stirring every couple of minutes, until thoroughly heated all the way through.

In the oven, add the pasta and sweet potato sauce to a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and heat for 15-20 minutes until heated through.

With both methods, if the sauce gets too thick and dense in the refrigerator, add a splash of milk before heating.