DIY: Passata - to make or to buy? - Food Blog

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DIY: Passata - to make or to buy?

Posted at 12:02PM, 05 November 2012 by Natalie Hardwick - Web assistant, bbcgoodfood.com

Is it always worth making your favourites from scratch? Our DIY series puts shop-bought and homemade to the test - this week passata…

After onions, garlic and lemons, tomatoes are the most used ingredient in my larder. Since said usage is often in ragus, curry sauces and soups, it begs the question - why have I never made my own passata? Perhaps because I presumed it would involve an expensive blender, sackloads of tomatoes and lots of tedious chopping.

But the clue is in the nature of the thick red nectar- passata is simply sieved tomatoes. Happy to bypass borrowing a blender, I set about making my own, my only reservation being the fact it's nigh on impossible to perfectly wash a sieve.

The cost:

Cost of 500g carton shop-bought passata:
£1.07

Cost of 1kg tomatoes and half a bulb of garlic to make 800ml homemade passata:
£1.65

The recipe I used:
Sara Buenfeld's tomato passata

Sadly I didn't have access to a rustic bounty harvested by my own fair hand so had to hit the local greengrocers for a bag of beef tomatoes. These are the cheapest around, and they offer a price advantage over ready-made passata. When poured out next to each other, the homemade passata was around one and a half times the quantity of the carton. You could even go more high end with your choice of tomato and still make a saving.

The making:

This recipe is pretty much foolproof - quarter your tomatoes, halve your garlic and throw into a pan with olive oil. You don't even need a spoon as sporadic shakes are all that's required. The cooking process is complete in 15 mere minutes, at which point you cool the mix.

Top tip:
Plunge your hot pan into a sink of cold water to speed up the cooling process.

The sieving part was pretty fun - I gave up after about three minutes and yielded a decent amount of passata, but the more economical may wish to persevere for longer.

The taste:

The homemade passata was remarkably lighter and thinner than the shop-bought. The shop-bought was really concentrated and almost bitter - like a cross between tomato soup and purée. It was also a pure and unadorned tomato hit - the garlic in the homemade version was a pretty heavy aftertaste but the overall finish was fresh and the sugar was a great addition.

The verdict:

If you want a thick, intense sauce, shop-bought will deliver, but homemade is lighter and more flavoursome - it was so good I'd drink it as a gazpacho. However, the garlic flavour was strong so I'd recommend adjusting the recipe if that's not your thing.

For me, the best approach would be to make a passata batch while cooking the dish you're putting it in. An extra half an hour won't make much of a difference when you're having a kitchen session, and you should have a batch leftover for next time when you need a speedy meal.

Not sure how to use passata? Try it out in pizza sauces, lasagne and curry.

Have you made your own? Let us know if you think it beats shop-bought…

Comments

hamish mctavish

7 November 2012, 3:45PM
hamish mctavish

I make about 100 kg of tomato stuff year, part home grown tomatoes, and part bought at the wholesale market. But I couldn't do that if I had to sieve and would find it furiously wasteful. Who said you had to get rid of all the seeds anyway? What is really important is to do away with the skins, and cook down enough to get a rich flavour, with more sugar and more acid than you'll get in even the best Italian packets of passatta.

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hamish mctavish

7 November 2012, 3:46PM
hamish mctavish

Sorry for the illiteracy. Passata.

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Tina

7 November 2012, 4:29PM
Tina

Hamish, good idea. I would never bother seiving. What a waste! Would you remove skins before cooking down?

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hm

7 November 2012, 4:53PM
hm

i make this all the time, I cut tomatoes in half, put in oven proof dish, cut side up, slosh on a dash of olive oil and either fresh or dried herbs and stick in oven along with anything else I am cooking, and leave in oven when its turned off, then when cool, put it all in food processor, then tip into large sieve, using a ladle or large serving spoon to press it through, remembering to scrape the bottom of the sieve, all you will have left will be a very small amount of pips/skin. I then freeze in ice cube tray, so its ideal to add a bit of oomph to a casserole or sauce, you could perhaps add garlic, but hubby wont eat it then, of course I also use the ice trays for left over passata, but I like the fresh one better, especially when you have free or cheap or even soggy tomatoes to use up

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Cherry Darling

7 November 2012, 5:00PM
Cherry Darling

I will definitely make this, however it certainly costs much less than Â£1.07 for a 500ml jar of passata!

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Cherry Darling

7 November 2012, 5:00PM
Cherry Darling

I will definitely make this, however it certainly costs much less than Â£1.07 for a 500ml jar of passata!

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Kate

7 November 2012, 6:26PM
Kate

I have an Italian mother-in-law who makes the best passata. However we make it too and I do what they do in India, I grate the tomatoes - use the course side of the grater and you will find that you have great pulp and the tomato skin is left on your hand. Do not mess around with putting the tomatoes into boiling water and then skinning them. Sugar is important and so is simmering it until you have a nice thick mixture. We never sieve it. We freeze it and then use it adding bacon, mushrooms or whatever we have in. Great for bruschetta.

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alfawife

8 November 2012, 8:59AM
alfawife

We have a lot of 'hedge veg' for sale in our area so I buy 4kg trays of 'splits' from our local tomato grower. Its really worth it, they can't supply them to the supermarkets, and they aren't actually split, just the ones that the shops won't accept as they don't look perfect. Usually between Â£2-Â£4 per kilo so mega cheap. I chop them into chunks, splosh some balsamic vinegar and olive oil over and a generous spoon of brown sugar (crucial), then roast them with whatever else is in the oven. I leave them in til cool then bag as they are, skins and all, and freeze in approx tin quantities. When defrosted the skins slip off really easily and you can either use chunky or blitz (with or without skins) for smooth sauce. I never bother sieving - too lazy - never seems to make enough of a difference.

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Kath W

8 November 2012, 11:36AM
Kath W

I had never heard of passata until recently when I needed it for a recipe. I thought about making it myself but when I found it on a certain german supermarket shelf for 29p for 500 ml, I thought hey lets give it a try. I have to say it worked perfectly, the quality was very good and and the dish namely, lamb tagine, turned out beautifully. At this price you have to ask yourself "Is it always worth the time and effort to do it yourself?"

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whats4t

14 November 2012, 12:10AM
whats4t

Homemade is worth the effort, even taking into account the possible extra pennies, as well as a lighter fresher result there is no added salt, something to consider because passata is often used in dishes which contain other salty ingredients.

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