Tomato Sauce: Almost Passata

 The Cook Log

Recipe 2: Almost Passata

This recipe is for something close to passata or what I knew till recently as one variant of the tomato sauce which is put on pastas and pizzas and which I recently used in a pan lasagne and risotto. I have learnt this recipe from my parents and used this recipe several times. It has worked 99% of the times (Just twice my sauce got burnt but that can be fixed). I hope this recipe comes out well for all readers too!

Why do I call it an almost passata?

There are some basic differences between this sauce of tomatoes and a passata. 

1. Passata uses no tomato seeds which i do.
2. Passata has unpeeled tomatoes but i peel them
3. Passata is strained. I do not strain the end product.
4. However, the ingredients and flavours are very close.

P.S. : I have not made this recipe at the time of publish and thus do not have process pictures. I will update with pictures the next time i make this recipe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Recipe name: Passata

Time Taken: 45 mins

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 600 ml of passata (can be used for 2-3 plates of pasta)

Ingredients Required:-

1. 7-8 tomatoes, cleaned

2. salt to taste

3. oregano/all purpose Italian seasoning (after cook garnish)

4. 2-3 cloves of garlic

5. 1 onion

Appliance(s) Required:-

Hand blender/mixer grinder

Steps to follow:-

1. Cut a small cross on each of the tomatoes and immerse them in a bowl of boiling water
2. Dice the onion
3. Chop the garlic pieces
4. Look at the bowl of tomatoes. If its skin is beginning to peel along the crossed edge, remove them from the bowl (Caution: Hot Tomatoes!)
5. Peel all the tomatoes. Chop them into 4 pieces each (I go for one cut length-wise and the other breadth-wise)
6. Get a saucepan ready on the stove. Pour 1-2 tsp of olive oil on it ( this is usually a random amount but I normally put 1-2 tsp of olive oil )
7. Put all the diced pieces of onion and garlic in the area of olive oil and let them turn yellow.
8. Now start placing the the cut tomatoes on the pan. Stir the mixture of onions and tomatoes.
9. At this step is where i burnt my tomatoes twice which i mentioned before. So to avoid it, Pour water to a level of about half a centimetre above the pan surface after placing the tomatoes.
10. Cover the pan. But don't leave it unattended, keep visiting it after every 2-3 minutes.
11. Keep observing the texture of the tomatoes. Press a tomato slightly. If it seems to be squishy that means you are reaching the finish line.
12. Keep turning and shaking the tomatoes in the pan and keep checking that nothing is getting burnt. Burnt passata tastes charred and bitter and ruins the flavour of the whole dish. 
13. The ideal time to turn of the heat is when your tomatoes completely decompress and come to a liquid consistency. However I have never had the patience of that amount so I turn the heat off when the tomatoes half deflated to about half their size (about 20-30 minutes)
14. If you are using a mixer grinder wait for the mixture to cool down before the next step. (Grinding a hot mixture leads to the lid of the mixer grinder to explode. Yes, I am not joking.)
15. Take your tomato mixture along with the salt and give it a thorough mix in the blender so that it has a uniform consistency.

And you have achieved the almost passata. Use it in pizzas, pastas, risottos, lasagnes or try new combos. Hope you enjoy !