Raw or lightly cooked tomatoes sieved to remove skin and seeds, leaving a smooth, pourable, unseasoned purée. It is the plain base a sauce is built on, not a finished sauce.
What it does in a recipe: Smooth tomato body and liquid, supplying acidity and mild sweetness without added seasoning. Pick the swap that covers that job - the ratios below are written so you can act on them without doing any arithmetic.
Also called: Tomato sauce (US canned), Strained tomatoes, Sieved tomatoes
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Condiments & saucescategory
Quick answer
Canned tomatoes, blended
1 cup passata = 1 cup canned whole or crushed tomatoes, blended until smooth
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4 ways to replace tomato passata
Canned tomatoes, blended
Closest match
1 cup passata = 1 cup canned whole or crushed tomatoes, blended until smooth
Identical fruit at a near-identical water content; blending and sieving is exactly the process that makes passata in the first place.
MethodPush the blended tomatoes through a sieve if you want passata's silky texture; skip that step for a rustic sauce.
Trade-offSlightly thicker and less uniform unless sieved.
Naming is a genuine trap here: British 'tomato purée' means concentrated paste, while American 'tomato purée' is closer to passata. Go by consistency, not by the word on the tin.
At a glance
Tomato passata in summary
Tomato passata at a glance: category, its job in a recipe, the diets it suits, the diets its substitutes can satisfy, and how many substitutes there are.
Can I use canned tomatoes, blended instead of tomato passata?
1 cup passata = 1 cup canned whole or crushed tomatoes, blended until smooth. Identical fruit at a near-identical water content; blending and sieving is exactly the process that makes passata in the first place. Slightly thicker and less uniform unless sieved.
Can I use tomato paste + water instead of tomato passata?
1 cup passata = 3 tbsp tomato paste + 3/4 cup water + a pinch each of salt and sugar. Passata is concentrate plus water, so reversing the reduction gets you back to roughly the right density and tomato intensity. Deeper and more cooked-tasting than passata, with less of the fresh acidity that makes a simple tomato sauce lively.
Can I use fresh tomatoes, blended instead of tomato passata?
1 cup passata = about 500 g ripe fresh tomatoes, blended, sieved and simmered 10 minutes. Passata is a preserved version of exactly this, so with ripe fruit you get the same thing with a fresher aroma. Thinner and paler unless the tomatoes are very ripe, and out of season it will taste noticeably weaker than the tinned version.
Can I use tomato juice, reduced instead of tomato passata?
1 cup passata = 1 1/2 cups tomato juice simmered down to 1 cup. Tomato juice is watered-down strained tomato with salt; reducing it restores the body and concentrates the flavour. Saltier than passata and often seasoned with celery salt, so hold back on salting the dish until you have tasted it.
Cooking around an allergy? Diet tags here describe the ingredient itself, not any particular brand. Processed products change formulation without notice and shared production lines are common, so read the label on everything you use. A severe allergy is a medical matter - confirm with the manufacturer or your clinician rather than relying on a substitution chart.