Brooklyn chef, Laila Ibrahim, says there's a better tomato sauce--and it's been hiding in plain sight. It's called Passata. Ever heard of it?

It's Italy's go-to smooth tomato purée, and it's been showing up in American grocery stores over the past several years. I'd never heard of it. But after reading Laila's thoughts on this product, I will be looking for it.

Sometimes labeled tomato purée or tomato sauce, passata is traditionally made with late summer, peak-season tomatoes, as a way to preserve them. It's a smooth, strained purée, free of skins and seeds, and typically sold in tall glass bottles.

She says you want to find Passata and use it for several reasons:

•         It's made from ripe, high-quality tomatoes (unlike most tomato purees that use less-than-fully-ripe tomatoes, resulting in a sharp flavor)

•         It's left unseasoned aside from a touch of salt and occasionally a few basil leaves (which promotes a natural sweetness and beautifully balanced acidity, so it doesn't need doctoring)

Unlike American-style store-bought tomato purées which are cooked until they get a thicker, more concentrated consistency with a stewed-tomato flavor, passata is brighter, lighter, and far more reminiscent of fresh tomatoes.

It also stands apart from jarred sauces. While jarred options often come loaded with garlic, herbs, sugar, and emulsifiers or stabilizers, passata is a blank canvas--ready to soak up whatever flavors you throw at it. But it's also vibrant enough to be prepared simply, with just a few pantry staples.

Before Passata became more available, chefs were recommending puréeing canned whole tomatoes to create an unadulterated smooth sauce. That still works--but passata skips the blender, the strainer, and most importantly, the cleanup.

Laila says Passata is her 'meal-making workhorse.' She'll heat olive oil with a heaping pile of sliced garlic, pour in the passata, season with chili flakes, and let it simmer just long enough for the flavors to come together (less than 20 minutes). She tosses it with whatever pasta she has on hand, then finishes it all off with a generous dollop of ricotta or a mound of grated Parmesan. She recommends scattering torn basil as a garnish, if you have it on hand.

Laila strongly suggests we all deliberately hunt for Passata, and be sure to go home with more than one bottle!