Passata vs Jarred Tomato Sauce: Raw Pulp vs Finished Sauce
Passata is strained raw tomato pulp with no seasoning, meant to be cooked down into a sauce from scratch; jarred 'tomato sauce' is already cooked and seasoned, a shortcut you can use nearly as-is. The distinction changes how much salt and simmering you add.
Two tomato products that look similar on the shelf behave very differently in a recipe. **Passata** is strained, uncooked tomatoes — essentially pure tomato pulp with no added seasoning, salt, or herbs. It is the more traditional choice when you are building a ragù or other sauce from scratch, because you control all the seasoning and cook it down yourself. **Jarred tomato sauce** (including 'tomato & basil' style jars) is already cooked and seasoned, often containing salt, herbs, and sometimes sugar or oil. It is a shortcut you can use almost as-is, at the cost of some control over the final flavor. **Substituting in a recipe.** If a recipe calls for passata but you only have a seasoned jarred sauce, you can swap it in with a few adjustments: hold off on adding salt until you taste at the end (the jar already contains salt), consider skipping added herbs the jar already provides, and shorten the simmer somewhat since the tomato is already cooked. It is still worth adding tomato paste for depth that the jarred sauce lacks. Neither product is cheese or a finished pasta condiment by itself — passata in particular is raw and must be cooked.