Tomatoes

We consulted the official tomato expert for all the details.

Got tomatoes?

Whether you choose store-bought or make your own, tomato paste adds a rich flavor to myriad dishes.

Take your salads to next-level tasty.

Our step-by-step photo guide will show you the way.

No more mealy tomatoes.

Plus, seven great varieties to try.

They're great for snacking, salads, and cooking!

It's way easier than it might seem.

The glories of summer produce are starting to show up, including the long-awaited return of tomatoes! I usually only buy small cherry tomatoes the rest of the year, so my excitement knows no bounds when big beefsteaks, colorful heirloom tomatoes, and dry-fleshed canning tomatoes appear. Here are five things you might not know about this fruit that’s used as a vegetable. Green tomatoes aren’t a type of tomato (with the exception of the Green Zebra, an unusual cultivar).

A quick and easy marinade makes all the difference.

This is supremely satisfying.

I can't believe it took me so long to try this.

Your pizza will taste better AND you'll save money. Win-win!

It's so easy and hands-off yet so celebratory of tomatoes.

We originally thought we’d post something this afternoon about traditional bruschetta — a simple, colorful way to showcase summer tomatoes. But that’s an easy one. Chopped tomatoes, maybe a bit of basil and onion, piled on crusty bread slices that have been toasted with olive oil and rubbed with garlic.

When my colleagues and I got to talking about all the ways we couldn’t wait to inhale tomatoes this summer, Hali called out her favorite snack from Spain. Pan con tomate, which quite literally translates to “bread with tomato,” is a classic tapa that originates from the northeastern region of Catalonia.

Grating vegetables is nothing new — we grate carrots and cabbage for slaws, zucchini for muffins — yet you’re wondering, why would I ever grate a tomato? The simple answer is that grating a tomato is the fastest and easiest way to peel and purée a tomato in one fell swoop, but there are a few more reasons too. Grating whole tomatoes on a box grater simultaneously removes the tomato skin and grates the tomatoes into a chunky purée.

Once you’ve tasted fresh mozzarella, nothing else compares. Forget the shredded stuff and ditch the block of low-moisture mozz — soft, fresh mozzarella is milky perfection. And that’s particularly true when it’s paired with its best counterpart: tomatoes. Whether you’re serving sweet, juicy in-season tomatoes with mozzarella for a caprese salad, sandwich, pizza, you have plenty of choices for which kind of fresh mozzarella to use.

Next time you’re in the canned tomato aisle at the grocery store, forgo you’re usual plain diced tomatoes and opt for a can of Ro-tel. The Southern favorite is a blend of diced tomatoes and fire-roasted green chilies, so it has all the juicy sweetness you’ll find in regular canned tomatoes but with the bonus of bold, smoky spice. Basically, it has the potential to jazz up a whole lot of meals. Here are our 10 favorite ways to use a can.

By now, you’ve likely eaten tomatoes every which way this summer. Maybe you’ve enjoyed them on toast, in a caprese salad, with pasta, or in pie. But there’s one way you likely haven’t enjoyed them, and it’s the perfect way to celebrate their juicy sweetness as the season begins to draw to a close. Try pairing summer tomatoes with a pinch of ground cinnamon (yes, cinnamon!). Let us explain why.

There’s a whole lot to love about summer eating, and while it’s hard to pick a favorite, I’d argue that tomatoes are pretty high up there. I take a hard pass on the pale, mealy versions available at the supermarket year-round and instead wait to bite into the absolute best for just a few short months in the summer. I’m not alone in this feeling — 10 smart, seasoned home cooks agree that nothing beats the juicy sweetness of summer tomatoes.

Before I get to that secret ingredient (or even to the no-cook tomato sauce that will change your life, I promise you), let me set something straight, for the record: This isn’t actually my no-cook tomato sauce. It belongs to my friend’s mom Peg, or Mrs. Schultz, as I still call her some 30 years later. Amelia and I were friends and so were our moms, something I never quite understood. It was an unlikely pairing. Mrs. Schultz was everything my German mom was not.

I have my mom to thank for my habit of blanketing the bottom shelf of my pantry with a row of canned tomatoes. She never directly advised this purchase, never outwardly sung the praises of the incredible versatility that lies inside a 14-ounce can, and never declared them the key to all the dinners she made from them. But that might be what I like best about all of this. She didn’t have to tell me; her actions made this lesson clear.

Rich tomato soup is a classic recipe rivaled only by maybe chicken noodle or matzo ball in nostalgia. While you might have a go-to recipe, there are always things you can do to soup to boost the flavor. For tomato soup in particular, here are a few things you can do to make it better every time. This probably isn’t a surprise, as basil and tomatoes are a delicious duo.

Forget canning and instead look to the freezer.

Tomato storage can be quite controversial. Many hold on to the belief that tomatoes should under no circumstance be stored in the refrigerator. Some have never heard such advice. Some keep their garden tomatoes on a kitchen windowsill and, while it is incredibly charming, it might not be the best way to store whole tomatoes. The best way depends a bit on temperature and timing.

It's easy to get carried away this time of year and overdo it with your tomato purchasing.

Slice up a peak-season tomato, eat it plain, and it will be a glorious thing. But tomatoes play extra well with others. Toss two more ingredients in the ring and you’ve got the kind of salad that only summer can bring. Take, for example, the caprese: Pair fresh mozzarella and basil with those tomatoes and everyone is happy. Here are 11 ways to mix up your tomato salad routine.

Just because you’ve had your fill of tomato sandwiches, panzanella salad, and all things caprese doesn’t mean it’s time to stop enjoying the brightest, sweetest, juiciest tomatoes of the year. You just need to take a different approach. Instead of eating your tomatoes, start drinking them each and every way possible. Simple and straightforward. If a glass is how you want to get your fill of summer tomatoes, this is the easiest way to make it happen.

Right now is arguably the best time of the whole summer to get your fill of fresh tomatoes. These deep-red beauties are so perfect that there’s a good chance you’ll smell their sweet scent wafting through the air before you even see them. Take a pound home with you and you’ll be delighted by these five ways to serve them up. This classic Italian salad is a simple, satisfying blend of juicy, ripe tomatoes and day-old bread tossed with a light vinaigrette.

Maybe instructions for slicing a tomato seem silly, especially since no matter how you slice a ripe tomato, it will still be meaty, juicy, and mouthwatering with nothing more than a sprinkle of salt. If you’ve ever had a luscious tomato fall apart before you could get it on that BLT, though, you understand that just one important trick means the difference between a sliced tomato and a perfectly sliced tomato. Cutting against the core is the key to keeping slices intact.

Walk through the farmers market this time of year and you’ll be blown away by the variety of tomatoes laid out at various stands. I always find myself lost among the shapes, sizes, and colors, trying to buy at least one of each unique type just to see what it tastes like. Here are just some of the incredible array of tomatoes that flock the markets.

Few fruits are romanticized more than the tomato. During peak tomato season, tomato-lovers flock to farmers markets and roadside stands to purchase tomatoes of every shape, size, and color. Pounds of tomatoes are snatched up without hesitation because nothing promises quality quite like farmers market tomatoes in the summer. But what about at the supermarket?

The lie that tomato seeds are bitter has met its timely end. We now know that the seed pulp is actually quite flavorful and we should not discard it to the waste pile. When a recipe calls for removing tomato pulp, it’s usually for a textural reason — say, a super-smooth sauce or for juicing the tomato pulp. The seeds and pulp are captured in cavities around the stem of the fruit, and those same cavities are just calling to be stuffed with flavorful fillings.

Sometimes it’s the littlest things in the kitchen that can elicit the feeling of pure joy. For me, it’s a kitchen tool I received as a wedding gift — one that, right now, is making the bounty of perfectly ripe summer tomatoes even more enjoyable. Roughly the size of a utility knife, with a serrated blade and a sharp, two-pronged tip ideal for coring, tomato knives are a tool of pure genius. For a true tomato-lover, these knives are the darling of the knife block.

Maybe you don’t even need to be talked into adding fruit to your tomato salad because you’re well aware of tomato’s classification as a fruit. And perhaps you’re also aware of how its inherent acidity is the most welcome guest in a too-sweet fruit salad. If, however, the combination of tomato and fruit baffles you or leaves you skeptical, permit me to do some convincing.

Whether it’s slipping a perfectly sliced tomato onto your egg sandwich or going for a heartier rendition in the form of shakshuka, tomatoes and eggs are often familiar breakfast companions. This relationship is one I capitalize on often in the form of a tomato fried egg. Tomato paste makes this tomato fried egg possible. This concentrated paste — which you can make at home — delivers intense tomato flavor without a high water content.

Peeling tomatoes is an arduous task whether you blanch the tomatoes or employ a serrated peeler. Some would argue there is rarely a need for peeling tomatoes (the peel is quite edible after all), but some specific instances call for peeling tomatoes to make a better end product. Here are five. Here’s the obvious one: Tiny tomatoes don’t need to be peeled. Large heirloom varieties, with their tender skin, don’t need peeling either.

Late summer is prime tomato season, which means I’m adding them to every meal I can. They’re so versatile that they can be the star of a dish or fabulous garnish. No matter what shape, size, or color you get, they’re sure to brighten any meal. So use these ideas to pack in all the tomatoes you can before the season ends. Yes, this is an obvious one, but tomato salads are anything but boring. Make this as simple or complicated as you’d like.

Sometimes the best way to eat more salad is to think outside the salad plate. We find this to be particularly true with caprese, the much-loved salad layered with a trio of ripe tomatoes, creamy mozzarella, and fresh basil. To make sure you get your fill this summer, here are five more ways to eat caprese (sans salad plate). Consider your morning (or lunchtime) avocado toast a blank canvas, waiting to be topped with bite-sized tomatoes, mozzarella pieces, and torn fresh basil leaves.

There are a dozen different ways to cut a tomato, but the best method depends on the tomatoes’ intended use. Tomato wedges are ideal for salads of all kinds — tomato salads, green salads, or for just eating drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. The goal for cutting tomatoes into wedges is to keep the tomatoes’ seed jelly intact once cut. Thinking about how a tomato grows and learning its parts will make slicing it much easier.

There are some kitchen chores that grow tedious when volume becomes a factor. For example, slicing a handful of cherry tomatoes goes quickly, but when you have a pint or two to get through, the task feels daunting. Cutting cherry tomatoes is a necessary evil because slices are easy to eat in salads and cook faster in quick pasta sauces. So how can you cut a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half at once instead of slicing a whole pint one by one? There’s a trick.

I dream of the time in summer when I can find tomatoes so sweet and ripe that I can bite into them like an apple; the kind bursting with flavor and a fragrance that hits your nose before you reach the bin. It’s tough to wait, so I have a little trick for getting more delicious flavor out of the bland, out-of-season tomatoes that populate the grocery store the rest of the year.

Q: I made the mistake of letting my husband go to our local pickling shop alone. I now have two-and-a-half quarts of pickled green tomatoes and one quart of pickled garlic with capers. Do you know of any recipes that would help to use them up? While delicious, I feel like the two of us will get bored quickly simply snacking on them … or go into a salt overload. Thank you! Sent by Sydney Editor: I laughed out loud when I read this email, just imagining what your reaction might have been!

Q: I am new to freezing fresh tomatoes. I put them in the freezer bag, and when I took one out and set it in a bowl on the counter, it was a runny mess and didn’t seem edible — even for soup or stew. Do you have any helpful advice? I probably have 80 to 100 wonderful Early Girl tomatoes frozen that were so delicious eaten over the summer.

A lot of recipes rely on canned tomatoes for flavor, acidity, richness, liquid, and so much more. Canned tomatoes are definitely a pantry staple we can’t live without, especially when it’s the middle of winter and there aren’t any good fresh tomatoes to be found. The canned tomato aisle at the grocery store is pretty impressive, with so many varieties and brands competing for your attention. How is each kind made, and how is it best used?

Q: When you go to the grocery store, you can find dry sun-dried tomatoes and also sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Would it be safe to buy dried ones and cover them in olive oil at home in say, a mason jar, to just pop in the fridge? I don’t know if there’s any kind of bacteria to worry about.

Growing up, my favorite summer lunch was the tomato and mayonnaise sandwich. Nothing could ever beat the combination of fresh, juicy tomatoes and rich, creamy mayo on white bread (with the crusts cut off, please). That is, until now. Because now there is tomato mayo pie, which combines beautiful heirloom tomatoes with a shiitake mushroom mayo — all inside a buttery, flaky pie crust. Swoon.

Along with milk and eggs, cherry tomatoes have a permanent spot on my shoppig list. For one, my kid eats them by the fistful. For two, I snack on them constantly while I cook. And for three, they act as a secret weapon when a dish needs a little extra color or flavor boost — because, in case you didn’t know, tomatoes are bursting with natural umami.

There’s nothing better than a homemade tomato sauce, but nothing worse than having to clean splashes of tomato off the backsplash or the wall behind the stove. So, what makes tomato sauce so explosive? Tomato sauce is a thick fruit mixture made up of water and also chunks of crushed tomato fruit and/or purée with all the natural sugars, acids, fiber, pectin, etc. from the fruit.

Tomatoes are one of the highlights of summer produce — I stuff myself with as many tomatoes as possible while they’re at the peak of ripeness, juicy, and that perfect balance of sweet and tart. But what about the rest of the year when good tomatoes aren’t available? Sun-dried tomatoes are a great way to preserve summer tomatoes so they can be used any time of the year when you want a nice punch of tomato flavor.

Q: I have a recipe that calls for “tomato broth.” (Part of a recipe for Panera Bread’s vegetable soup.) I’ve never heard of it — what is it compared to tomato soup, stock or base? It’s confusing. I have been online to get info but there seems to be no clarity in making it. Please kindly explain and help with a recipe for it so I can add it to the soup.

Q: I’ve had an issue with tomato-based recipes in my beloved slow cooker: they all seem to get that burned tomato aroma and flavor (like when you leave spaghetti sauce on the stove too long or too high). I work all day and don’t have time to stir the contents, so it often gets that “rind” along the top of the crock, but that happens with any recipe I make — I don’t have the burnt issue with non-tomato recipes.

Look inside my pantry and you’ll find a tower of canned tomatoes at all times; they are one of my favorite pantry staples. Canned tomatoes are really versatile and work well in so many different dishes. Here are five of our favorite ways to use canned tomatoes for easy weeknight dinners. A simple can of tomatoes gives you the power to take your mid-week dinner in a lot of delicious directions.

Q: I have always made a great, simple tomato sauce based on roasting tomatoes, hot peppers, onion and garlic in the oven at 350°F for an hour, and then simmering the puree of the roasted veggies with a teabag full of Italian spices and a cup of chicken stock. It’s rich and savory and very spicy and a little sweet and I love it.

All week long, I’ve been talking about summer tomatoes and the various ways to preserve them so that you can eat them all year round. And truly, I think that there’s no better gift to yourself and your family than a pantry shelf full of home canned tomatoes. However, new canners often find that once they’ve put all that work in putting up those tomatoes, they have a hard time getting themselves to open up those jars and eat the fruits of their labor.

Cherokee Green tomatoes were born something of a fluke—their history dates back to seed-saver Craig LeHouiller, who first grew Cherokee Chocolate tomatoes—large, purple, beefsteak tomatoes that were resistant to disease. From those plants, Cherokee Green tomato emerged—though it was ripe, it retained a beautiful greenish yellow hue. Use Cherokee Green tomatoes wherever you’d use their cousins, the more familiar red heirloom tomatoes.

Juliets are a hardy variety of tomato, which means they are more resistant to cracking, and the fruits remain strong on the vine much longer than other varietals of tomatoes this size. Also known as mini-Romas because of their shape, Juliets are technically a cross between a cherry and plum tomato. Straight off the vine, the Juliet varietal has a distinctly floral taste and smell. Juliets carry some sweetness, though not as much as Sungolds.

When it comes to preserving tomatoes, most people think that you have to go big. And while it’s true that during late summer it’s easy to get your hands on Romas and San Marzanos by the boxful, there’s also nothing wrong with thinking small. Here are a few tips for scaling down those big-batch recipes to turn just a few pints of tomatoes into delicious sauce.