I have a couple of packets of zatar; I use them with olive oil and humus on pita.
Thanks for the comments all; I don’t want these spices to go to waste, and now I’ve got some idea how to use them.
ETA: just found another one: Kashmiri chili?
I have a big bag of whole dried Kashmiri chili peppers I bought from an Indian grocery that’s almost gone. I grind them up in my spice grinder, usually along with other spices to make stuff like curry powders. But they’re very versatile peppers- a medium heat chili with a nice flavor, so I’ve used them in anything I need a little heat added to.
But they (I mean tomato sauce) usually have flavorings added like onion and garlic. Which may be okay, but when I want tomato puree, I don’t want anything but tomatoes (and perhaps salt, but no flavorings) in them. (And isn’t tomato sauce cooked? Purée isn’t).Crushed tomatoes will work. So will ground tomatoes (this one you don’t see as often, but 7/11 and 6-in-1 are two brands that use that designation.) Passata, of course, is perfect. If none can be found, then I’d just blitz down some good whole canned tomatoes.
Oh, I agree, that’s fine if you have it.
Yes, tomato sauce is cooked to get the moisture out of it. I used to make my own from scratch. Still make and can my own whole and crushed tomatoes.
Even canned whole tomatoes are cooked during the canning process. So is passata.
But not to the extent tomato sauce is. When I’ve tried using tomato sauce for something like pizza, it tastes like it’s been simmered for a good while. The other tomato products taste like fresh tomatoes. I like fresh tomato flavor for most of my quick pasta dishes.
I do, too. But I’d have no problem using a can of tomato sauce for tomato puree – which was the original question.
Depends on the recipe, though.
I was disputing the assertion that tomato sauce has added sugar. It doesn’t.
Usually thyme.
Yep, I forgot that one. You are right - thyme for sure.
Well, the zaatar herb is Origanum syriacum, a plant in the oregano family, but thyme is most often found here (although you can buy zaatar made with O. syriacum online, at least.)
They’re essentially saltine crackers (or very close to them), in a different, disc shape, which makes them better suited for topping onto soup than big square crackers (which you’d usually need to break up to put on soup).
As noted, they’re very common in U.S. grocery stores, and Premium (the primary brand of saltine crackers in the U.S.) is a big maker of oyster crackers, too.
As to Kashmiri chili …
It’s simply powdered cayenne. It’s the common source of heat in red-colored Indian / Pakistani cuisine. It’s available from that sort of grocery store in several heat classes, with the hottest being pretty impressive. Some would argue that the specific cultivars in Kashmir are better or different than cayenne from more conventional North American sources. I don’t see much difference.
As to going to waste …
It’s real easy to search for oddball spices or ingredients by name and come up with legions of recipes. Read a few to home in on what basic dish sounds good, then refine the search to that e.g. Go from [Za’atar] to [Za’atar eggs] and read a few more of to get a feel for the range of proportions of the various spices commonly used together, then go cook. That’s my general approach to cooking anything, once I’ve decided on a lead spice and a main ingredient.
I bought it from Amazon. It’s interesting.
Never heard of them or seen them before. TIL. I guess I do need that invite to Nantucket.
The thing unmentioned about oyster crackers so far is they’re about 1/2"in diameter. So a few float nicely atop a soup.
As to the name, something about the way they’re baked has them as sort of a top and bottom half that easily separate. So they sort of pop open like opening an oyster. More like a clam really, being circular rather than irregularly shaped.
“Contains no actual oyster.” 
As a kid in coastal SoCal my first intro to them was in the context of New England clam chowder. I totally expected the crackers to be oyster-flavored. I was sorely disappointed.
In the UK at least, tomato puree is very different from ‘passata’.
We have tins of chopped tomatoes, usually 440ml I think.
Or cartons/bottles of passata which is just tomatoes put through a blender, in similar container sizes.
The tomato puree comes in a tube (or sometimes teeny cans) and is much more concentrated (so is presumably tomato ‘paste’ in American, as suggested).
According to the Hunt’s site, puree has a " texture between tomato paste and crushed tomatoes.".
Here in the US, it’s pretty common. All of the major canned tomato producers (Hunt’s, Contadina, and RedGold) all make a canned puree, as well as crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and a host of other canned tomato products.
In the UK, I think I’d just get some Italian passata and use that, as it’s probably the closest thing to American tomato puree that I can think of that would be common there.
I don’t know… US cayenne is pretty much used for imparting heat, while Kashmiri chili powder is usually not as hot. I’m pretty sure they’re looking for the milder stuff in most recipes. I have no idea about pepper cultivars used though.
Yes, what you are describing is tomato paste in US nomenclature. The toothpaste tube style is rather recent and usually with imported brands. All tomato paste growing up, at least for me, was in small cans.
To make tomato puree for a recipe, I’d use canned tomatoes (which we always have), crushing the tomatoes by hand (something my gf taught me) then adding in some paste (which we always have).