What is Passata?

I was reading a recipe for Pappardelle and it called for Passata. What the heck is that? This was in a mediterranean cook book. Think Greek or Armenian or some such thing....What is Passata?
passata 鈥?at least according to some Brits 鈥?is skinned, seedless, unflavored, uncooked tomato pulp, either slightly chunky or smooth



http://www.ochef.com/603.htm

I have looked on your site for passata, which is, I now know, like a tomato paste. However my recipe needs 200ml! [a little more than 3/4 cup]. What should I mix with the paste? It is for aubergine [eggplant] and pepper rolls.



Many of our readers 鈥?especially in Britain 鈥?have taken us to task over our answer that passata is a cooked tomato concentrate. Not so, they say. We buy it all the time in our supermarkets in bottles, cans, or cartons, and it is essentially crushed tomatoes.

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Finally, we came across two British books A Cook's Guide to Italian Ingredients (Canada, UK) and La Cucina Italiana (Canada, UK) that seemed to agree on a definition for passata: "sieved red tomatoes." Depending on the degree of sieving, the pulp can be perfectly smooth (polpa di pomodoro) or slightly chunky (passata rustica). So passata 鈥?at least according to some Brits 鈥?is skinned, seedless, unflavored, uncooked tomato pulp, either slightly chunky or smooth



http://gourmetsleuth.com/equivalents_sub鈥?/a>

Passata - Recipe ingredient. A sauce made of tomatoes, basil, water, preservative. You can substitute tomato puree or tomato sauce or canned tomatoes