What is the advantage of using a mechanical vegetable mill (the utensil which in Italian is called "passaverdura" or "passaverdure") as opposed to using an electric food processor for vegetables?
The only thing I could think of is that a mechanical vegetable mill makes it easy to separate the tomato peels when passing the tomato through it.
Here is an example of a food processor for comparison:
I've also found the following Wikipedia link to the utensil I describe:
Thank you for your insight.
Note: A vegetable food processor can also be called a vegetable mixer as this link demonstrates:
Best Answer
The advantage of a passaverdura (or passe-vite in French, also known as Foley Mill in the US) is that like you said it will, depending on the coarseness of the screen, keep back undesired matter, such as pips, skins and strings. Personally, I use it mostly for apple sauce and also mashed potatoes (they achieve a higher level of fluff and fineness than with a masher).
Assuming that by a vegetable mixer you mean a stick mixer for puréeing (among other things), using that implement will not remove the aforementioned unwanted matter, which can make the consistency deviate from what you want it to be.