Passata, tomato purée, sieved tomato sauce
Allowed — On the allowed list of the leaflet this book follows and of every hospital compared.
It is sieved, with no skin or seeds left in.
Passata is cooked tomato pushed through a sieve. The skin and the seeds, which are the two parts of a tomato that pass through the gut intact, have already been removed at the factory. What is left is the flesh and the juice, and neither of those causes any difficulty on this diet.
It is, in other words, the same operation this book asks you to perform on a soup, done for you in advance.
What to buy
A plain, smooth passata with tomatoes and salt on the label and nothing else. Avoid anything sold as rustica, which is deliberately coarser, and anything with basil or herbs in it. Tomato purée in a tube is the same thing concentrated and is also fine. Tomato ketchup is allowed by the leaflet this book follows.
Tinned chopped tomatoes are not the same product. They contain skin and seeds, and blending them does not remove either.
Where hospitals differ
Hardly at all, and only in wording. The leaflet this book follows allows passata and purée. St George's names tinned deseeded tomatoes and purée. Leeds allows purée and passata and asks for anything else to be peeled and deseeded first. Everyone restricts whole and chopped tomatoes.
Getting more out of it
Passata on its own tastes thin and slightly metallic. Butter, garlic cooked soft, a pinch of sugar, a bay leaf infused and lifted out and twenty minutes of gentle simmering turn it into a proper sauce. See tomatoes and passata.
Recipes using it
- Baked chicken parmigiana
- Beef ragù with white tagliatelle
- Slow-braised beef with swede and carrot mash
- Chicken cacciatore with passata
- Cottage pie for two with silky mash
- Smooth tomato soup with cream
- Smooth tomato sauce
- Pink pasta with passata and mascarpone
- Prawn and passata linguine
- Quorn bolognese with white spaghetti
Swaps
- Instead of Tinned chopped tomatoes, use Passata or sieved tomato purée
- Passata has been sieved of skin and seeds, which are the parts of a tomato that pass through undigested.
- Instead of Chunky shop-bought pasta sauce, use A smooth passata-based sauce, blended if needed
- A shop-bought sauce can hide chopped vegetables, skins or seeds, so a passata base you control stays reliably smooth.
- Instead of Sun-dried tomatoes, use Passata or sieved tomato purée
- Sun-dried tomatoes concentrate the skin along with the flavour, so passata gives the same deep tomato taste with the skin already removed.