A roasted cherry tomato cream sauce recipe that comes together in your air fryer in the time it takes for the pasta to boil! This is such a quick and easy dinner, perfect for one or two portions.

Introducing our fave quick and easy air fryer pasta recipe

If you’re looking for a way to make pasta sauce in the air fryer, you are in luck with this roasted cherry tomato cream sauce! It’s a simple but solid vegetarian pasta dish: roasted garlicky tomatoes in a cheesy cream sauce mixed with farfalle (or penne, fusilli, whatever you’ve got).

This is one of my daughter’s favorite recipes, so I was delighted to see how easily it adapted to the air fryer, making it a lightning fast dinner. The sauce comes together in the air fryer in the time it takes the pasta to cook, which is pretty much the holy grail of pasta dishes. You just roast the tomatoes in a cake pan within your air fryer basket, then add all the other ingredients to that pan and you’re done.

Here, I’ll show you:

Mix tomatoes with olive oil, herbs and garlic

Recipe Notes & Tips…

This makes two small portions, ideal for kids or for adults who have a side dish to go along with it. Or one adult portion with a little left over for tomorrow’s lunch. It’s fairly easy to scale this up though – if you can fit a larger pan if your air fryer, you can roast more tomatoes. If you want to squeeze more tomatoes into an 8 inch cake pan, that should turn out OK but will take longer to cook.
You can use cherry tomatoes, grape (baby plum) tomatoes or baby heirloom tomatoes – whatever you’ve got – but the cook time may vary a little bit based on size / type. Just check in after the 8 minute mark and go from there.
If your tomatoes aren’t great quality or are out of season, you may want to add a little sugar to them alongside the garlic and herbs to sweeten things up.
You want a flavorful cheese for this recipe, something that packs a punch. A parmesan style cheese is ideal, but watch out for animal rennet if you need this to be vegetarian. A really strong vintage cheddar is great too, and what I usually use.
I use heavy (double) cream for this recipe but you could swap it for mascarpone if you wish.

Suggested Additions & Variations

Make this your own! This is a simple base recipe and you can do so much more with it…

Mix in a handful of baby spinach at the end (you would add it alongside the pasta and stir through until it’s wilted).
Add some extra cheese on top and put it back into the air fryer for another couple of minutes to make a crispy cheesy topping.
Sundried tomatoes, olives and capers are little flavor bombs that would be right at home here. You could add these alongside the cream and cheese.
Basil leaves are always a great addition when they’re available.
I already mentioned adding sugar to your tomatoes if you feel they might be sub-par, but you can go a step further and mix in a squeeze of honey and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar if you want a punchier sauce.
Feel free to add a tablespoon of butter to the pan alongside the cheese and cream for a richer sauce.
You can also up the flavor by splashing in a tablespoon of white wine the very moment you take the tomatoes out of the air fryer – the heat on the pan will make sure the wine sizzles and gets soaked up by the tomatoes. Delish!

More Quick & Easy Vegetarian Meals in the Air Fryer

Air Fryer Gnocchi with Pesto

Air Fryer Veggie Fajitas

Air Fryer Baked Spaghetti

Air Fryer Oyster Mushroom Steaks