Tomato passata (Passata di pomdoro) 🇮🇹
Food, Plant source foods, Flowering plats (angiospermae), Mesangiosperms, Eudicots, Core eudicots, Superastierds, Asterids, Lamiids, Solanales, Solanaceae, Solanum, Tomato
Consumption area(s): Italy 🇮🇹
Introduction
Tomato passata (Passata di pomdoro) is a dense liquid created by straining tomatoes. It’s often mistaken for tomato sauce, but the two are different. Sauce is produced by cooking this product and incorporating additional ingredients such as onion, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, herbs, or spices. In some recipes, the passata itself may already contain elements like basil, olive oil, or salt, though these can also be added later during the preparation of dishes.
Compared to passata, tomato pulp is not strained or cooked; it is simply peeled and pulped, resulting in larger, chunkier pieces. Tomato paste is prepared in a manner similar to passata, but the final product is much thicker due to a higher degree of water evaporation, giving it a denser and more concentrated texture.
Production methods for tomato purée
Homemade tomato passata
Tomato passata (Passata di pomodoro)
Іngredients
- 2.5 kg
ripe tomato (4.4 lb) - 10
sweet basil leaves (optional, not always used) - 1/2 tbsp
table salt
Іnstructions
- Inspect all tomatoes carefully, discard any damaged ones, wash them thoroughly, remove the stems, cut them lengthwise, and press out the seeded core.
- Collect the cleaned tomato pulp in one bowl and the extracted juice in another, then transfer the pulp to a large pot.
- Cook the tomatoes over low heat for about 30 minutes, stir occasionally, and salt them once fully softened.
- Pass the cooked tomatoes through a food mill in small batches, using a medium-fine disc, and gather the tomato passata in a clean container.
Canning the Tomato Passata (Hot-Fill Method)
- Prepare sterilized jars—either pre-sterilized or boiled following standard health guidelines—and fill them with the hot tomato passata, leaving 2–3 cm of headspace; add washed basil leaves only if desired.
- Seal the jars firmly, submerge them in hot water, bring to a boil, and process them according to size (30 minutes for 250 g jars, 35 minutes for 500 g, 40 minutes for 1 kg).
- Remove the jars with care, allow them to cool completely, and verify vacuum sealing before storing.
Canning the Tomato Passata (Cold-Fill Method)
- Fill sterilized jars with cold tomato passata, place them in a pot of water, bring to a boil, and apply the same processing times used for the hot-fill method.
Notes:
Industrial tomato passata
The processing of tomato passata largely follows the same path as tomato paste, with a few key differences: there is no stage of concentration, and the blanching is performed more slowly at lower temperatures to preserve the natural texture and flavor. After crushing the tomatoes, they undergo blanching, which helps the skin separate from the pulp.
The mixture then moves through the refining stage, where it first passes through a pulper that removes skins and seeds using a combination of a screw mechanism and centrifugal force, and is subsequently passed through a finer refiner to achieve a smooth consistency. The passata is then pasteurized to ensure safety and extend shelf life, before being finally packaged for distribution.
Nutritional facts table
| Nutrients | Per 100 g |
| Calories (kcal) | 31 |
| Total fat (g) | 0.1 |
| ———Saturated fat (g) | 0 |
| Cholesterol (mg) | 0 |
| Sodium (mg) | 200 |
| Total carbohydrates (g) | 5.1 |
| ———Dietary fiber (g) | 1.6 |
| ———Total sugar (g) | 4.5 |
| Protein (g) | 1.5 |
Recipes that use this product as an ingredient:
Source(s):
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passata_di_pomodoro
Photo(s):
1. Javier Lastras da Spagna/Spagna, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons