Passata is a smooth, uncooked tomato purée, a staple of Italian cooking made by sieving ripe tomatoes to remove skins and seeds, then briefly heating and bottling the resulting thick liquid. Unlike tomato paste, which is concentrated, or sugo, which is a cooked sauce, passata is simply tomatoes in their purest preserved form, with a fresh, bright flavour and pourable consistency. Some versions include basil or a touch of salt, but classic passata contains nothing else. It forms the base of countless sauces, soups, and braises, where its smoothness gives an even texture without the long simmering whole tomatoes require. Nutritionally it delivers lycopene, vitamin C, and potassium with minimal energy, and the heat of bottling actually increases lycopene bioavailability, a happy accident of preservation.