A lifetime ago, my husband and I took our children to Tuscany. It was a magical trip, save for the evening when I used my rudimentary Italian to order beef. A large bowl of beef intestines was presented to our squeamish 12-year-old son. He became a vegetarian for the remainder of the trip and an aficionado of pasta al pomodoro. Good pomodoro sauce is light and fresh, yet intensely tomato-y. That deep tomato flavor? That’s the passata.
Passata is the uncooked tomato sauce at the heart of many Italian tomato-based dishes. It’s thinner than tomato paste, smoother than crushed tomatoes, and contains no skins, seeds, spices or aromatics.
Start with the ripest tomatoes you can find. They are the only ingredient, so they should be outstanding. In a perfect world, you should use sun-ripened San Marzano tomatoes, but brown-bagged Roma tomatoes work just fine. While passata is technically raw, quickly blanch the tomatoes to remove the skins.
Credit: Kellie Hynes
Credit: Kellie Hynes
The easiest way to transform tomatoes into passata is to run them through a food mill. I do not own a food mill. Instead, I press my tomatoes with a potato ricer, grate the remaining pulp with a box grater, and then push the juices and any lumpy bits through a fine-mesh strainer. In the end, only the seeds should remain in the strainer. Be sure to scrape the gooey goodness from the bottom of the strainer into your bowl of passata — that’s the gel from around the seeds and it’s rich with umami. Yes, passata is labor intensive. But if you have a lot of ripe tomatoes and a lot of time on your hands, the process is nearly meditative. Like kneading dough. Or drinking Chianti during a long family vacation.
I enjoy the acidic tartness of passata drizzled over cold cheese tortellini. It’s also delicious as the base for gazpacho, and the star of a bloody mary. If you prefer a more mellow flavor, simmer the passata a mere 10 minutes with a little onion, garlic and basil. Keep cooking to reduce the passata into a thicker sauce that partners with pizza crust and supports ground beef in a Bolognese. You can also substitute passata for canned tomatoes in soup and stew recipes. When it comes to versatile Italian cooking, it’s never a mistake to reach for the passata.
Credit: Kellie Hynes
Credit: Kellie Hynes
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