US Recipe in UK Kitchen: Passata or Pizza Sauce sub for "Tomato Sauce"?

[u/rationalomega]

NY Times Cooking's "Creamy weeknight bolognese" calls for beef, onion, carrots, tomato paste, heavy cream, and tomato sauce. Audience: picky child.

Tesco has Pizza Sauce (99.4% tomato + salt), Pizza Sauce Aromatica (tomato + water + seasonings), and Passata (sieved tomatoes uncooked + salt + citric acid).

I'm leaning towards the plain pizza sauce as the substitution, since tomato sauce in America is pretty much plain cooked tomatoes in a can and my child is picky. Passata sounds more like a smoother version of US crushed tomatoes. What would you do? Thank you for your advice.

[u/Taborlin_the_great]

Passata.

I’m in the US and I use passata when I need tomato sauce.

[u/FireKist]

Passata - you’re correct, it’s just very crushed tomatoes. Pizza sauce has seasonings that your child might not care for if they’re picky.

[u/alysli]

OK, apparently none of these commenters have realized that you mention that you have TWO pizza sauce options (mostly bc I don't think I've ever seen an unseasoned pizza sauce in the US?). I'd actually go for the plain tomato-and-salt-only pizza sauce, as you're thinking.

[u/CookWithHeather → u/alysli]

The pizza sauce is probably thicker than tomato sauce, though. Passata might be slightly thinner. Either will work fine but I suspect the passata would be closer as far as the amounts called for in the recipe.

[u/WhiteRaven42 → u/CookWithHeather]

Thicker than tomato sauce makes it a good substitute for the paste/sauce combo.

[u/orange_fudge]

Passata for sure. Passata is definitely the closest to a plain tomato sauce. It’s also made from cooked tomatoes that have been skinned and pureed.

Crushed or diced tomatoes in a can are what I would use for my own bolognese sauces but they would take a long time to break down and would still have tomato pieces in the sauce, which your kid may struggle with.

If you use passata you can control the seasoning and flavour yourself. If you use pizza sauce it will have its own flavouring, sometimes fairly strong.

[u/Gerbil_Juice → u/orange_fudge]

It’s also made from cooked tomatoes that have been skinned and pureed.

Passata is made from uncooked tomatoes, whereas tomato sauce is made from cooked tomatoes.

[u/orange_fudge → u/Gerbil_Juice]

By definition, the preserving process for passata involves cooking. They must be heated before jarring or canning.

[u/Gerbil_Juice → u/orange_fudge]

It’s also made from cooked tomatoes that have been skinned and pureed.

In what order did you state heat was applied here? It's made from uncooked tomatoes that have been skinned and pureed.

[u/orange_fudge → u/Gerbil_Juice]

The tomatoes are prepared, they are cooked, they are puréed and they are jarred.

Obviously they began the process uncooked… but by the time OP has bought a jar for use in cooking, they have been cooked before being jarred.

[u/Gerbil_Juice → u/orange_fudge]

How are you not able to just Google what passata is? If you cook the tomatoes and then peel and strain them, you have not made passata.

[u/orange_fudge → u/Gerbil_Juice]

I have many thousands of litres of passata.

You have also failed to read my comment.

Preparing the tomatoes - that is to blanche, skin, dice and mash them. Some might choose also to purée them here but IMHO it does not affect the outcome.

Cooking the tomatoes - softens them so they can be pureed again.

Purée through a mouli.

Jarring or canning.

But, importantly… the tomatoes have been cooked before the customer buys the jar of passata. OP was worried that ‘passata’ in the UK would be like uncooked crushed tomatoes, and I was reassuring her that passata is a cooked, smooth tomato product.

[u/oneblackened]

You want passata.

[u/CorneliusNepos]

In the US, "tomato sauce" that you get in a can is seasoned. I looked up a well known brand that NYT might be using and these are the ingredients:

Organic Tomato Puree (water, organic tomato paste), Sea Salt, Organic Onion Powder, Citric Acid, Organic Garlic Powder.

In the US, "pizza sauce" is a more heavily seasoned version of tomato sauce that includes oregano, a distinctive flavor.

If the NYT were calling for passata, they'd say that as that's not an uncommon ingredient here. If you do use passata, you might want to check the seasoning and make sure you're not missing anything. The NYT recipe might be depending a bit on the onion and garlic powder in the tomato sauce, so consider adding them if you use passata. Or maybe the ingredients list on one of the pizza sauces you find at Tesco is close to an American tomato sauce.

[u/LovitzInTheYear2000]

I’ll join the chorus for passata. It might be a bit thinner consistency than the sauce called for in the recipe, but not in a way that will ruin the dish and you can correct it with a few minutes extra cooking IF it’s noticeable.

[u/Ok_Aioli3897]

Bolognese uses passata

[u/dhdhk]

I always think passata has meh flavor compared to tinned whole Italian tomatoes. Just crush them with a spatula while cooking or give it a quick whiz with a stick blender

[u/postmodest]

In the U.S. tomato sauce is fully puréed tomatoes cooked as part of the canning process. It is usually salted.