In our review of Creamy Creamless Tomato Soup last week, we accidentally divulged that we'd been storing our fresh tomatoes in the fridge - a big no-no that many of you were quick to point out!
You were right to slap our hands, and here's why...
Tomatoes are surprisingly delicate, we've discovered! Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking explains that refrigerating tomatoes damages the membranes inside the fruit walls, causing the tomato to lose flavor and develop the mealy texture we associate with mid-January grocery store tomatoes.
So the best place to store tomatoes is, indeed, on the counter top at room temperature. They actually continue to develop flavor until maturation peaks a few days after picking.
If you (like us!) have been keeping your fresh tomatoes in the fridge, try letting them sit out at room temperature for a full day before eating them. McGee says that some of the enzymes will re-activate and boost the flavor back up.
The moral of the story is this: tomatoes are meant to be eaten, not hoarded. And preferably, they should be eaten right away, immediately, as soon as you're home from the farmer's market, and without delay!
Related: Tastes Like Summer: The Perfect Tomato Sandwich
(Image: Flickr member visualdensity licensed under Creative Commons)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
True Greek Recipe: Paximadi Bread Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Capers
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
Before & After: Emily Henderson Transforms a Senior's Studio Space
Monica & Austin's Charming Bungalow
I have learned my lesson about this too.
Unfortunately after my first crop of tomatoes earlier this summer (which were fantastic!!) the most recent tomatoes have been small and quick to rot on my window sill. Any suggestions?
labchick, a suggestion... don't put the tomatoes on your window sill in direct sunlight as the sun is probably ripening them too quickly.
I tried to tell my father-in-law this, to no avail! Maybe he prefers the mealy texture.
What if "room temperature" in your kitchen during the summer is 90 degrees?
I also want to know the answer to Sparkiy's question about room temp.
the answer to the warm kitchen is try to store the tomatoes in the shade, and eat within 2 days of purchase. Maybe you can put a small bowl of tomatoes on table in another room if the temp is cooler elsewhere in your home? My small kitchen also gets really hot in the summer, but that's not reason enough for me to eat mealy tomatoes.
My family and I have always had fridge-tomatoes. I'll have to try this and see if I notice a difference!
I've read that the flavor does not come back to refrigerated tomatoes.
I not only don't refrigerate them, I don't buy tomatoes that have been refrigerated in transit or at the grocery store.
This is a reason that canned tomatoes taste better. I buy tomatoes from farmers' markets, to which they have been transported in non-refrigerated trucks.
You also could store them in the cellar, which might be a good compromise between a really hot kitchen and a too cold fridge. If you have a cellar, that is.
Also don't forget to store them "upside down." By putting the stem side down, you incur less bruising to the fruit!
I LOVE toasted tomato sandwiches! Salt, pepper, and "sub sauce" (it's sold in the deli section at the grocery store). It's very similar to Italian dressing, although if you drizzle actual Italian dressing, go easy -- so yummy!