Tomatoes don’t need any more promotion, and that’s precisely why I wanted to write about how to improve them.
Every month for more than a year, this series has shared seven ways to upgrade common ingredients and dishes. Occasionally, it’s a space to sing about the unsung (see canned tuna and zucchini). Other times, it ensures beloved foods meet your expectations: tonight’s salmon is silky, the pasta salad is lively, and the tomatoes are as satisfying as you hoped.
And yet, fresh tomatoes are one of the most beguiling ingredients for me to cook with, as someone who professionally creates recipes. (To the tomato avoidant, I see you.) While I crave their tangy juices, the flavour of tomatoes can be unpredictable.
They can be bland, bitter or even as sugary as an overripe strawberry. It’s difficult to know what kind you have until it’s home, and you’re committed to using it.
But over the course of creating about 40 recipes that feature fresh tomatoes for New York Times Cooking, I’ve come to rely on certain moves that catapult their quality. These seven recommendations make each bite that much better. So read up, and then return to feasting on your tomatoes.
1. Consider their size
When it comes to tomatoes, size matters, both in the size you buy and cut. Tomatoes that resemble gumballs, like cherries, grapes or Sungolds, will be more consistently sweet because they have less space for water to dilute their juices.
They also have a higher peel-to-flesh ratio, which helps them maintain their shape when cooked or marinated. If you cut larger tomatoes into pieces the size of a cherry tomato, they have a tendency to turn mushy. But keep those cuts chunky — say, 1- to 2-inch pieces or fat wedges — and they’ll stay intact better, so you can save their juices for your bite instead of the bowl.
Need some recipes to start? Tomato-Lentil Salad With Spicy Tahini | Tomato-Basil Chicken Breasts | Furikake Tomato Sandwich | Dumpling Tomato Salad With Chile Crisp Vinaigrette | Tuna and Tomato Salad | Curry Tomatoes and Chickpeas With Cucumber Yogurt | Marinated Cherry Tomatoes on Toast
2. Amplify the acid with lemon
While tomatoes are often dressed with vinegars, go for lemon juice instead. The gentler acid enhances the brightness of tomatoes without announcing itself as loudly, which means the tomato’s essence keeps the focus.
Need some recipes to start? Tomato Salad | Cottage Cheese Pasta With Tomatoes, Scallions and Currants | Kachumbari (Tomato and Onion Relish) | Puttanesca Chickpea-Tomato Salad | Huevos Rancheros
3. Pair with other fruit
While often used as a vegetable, tomatoes can also be used in fruity applications. (Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit.) Think of it as a win-win situation: peaches, pomegranates and melons bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes, while tomatoes’ acidity gives them some zing.
Need some recipes to start? Yotam Ottolenghi’s Tomato and Pomegranate Salad | Tomato and Peach Salad With Whipped Goat Cheese | Tomato and Watermelon Salad | Country Panzanella With Watermelon Dressing | Melon, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
4. Add dairy
There’s power in tomatoes and dairy. When their acid and fat, sweet and tang meet up, watch out. The two balance each other beautifully, and their potential for greatness is possible no matter the type of cheese, whether it’s milkier fresh options like mozzarella, ricotta, and burrata or nuttier aged cheeses like Parmesan and cheddar.
Need some recipes to start? Tomato Cheddar Toasts | Classic Caprese Salad | Creamed Tomatoes on Toast | Roasted Tomato Tart With Ricotta and Pesto | Spiced Tomato and Eggplant Pasta
5. Eat with chilli crisp
Chile crisp’s fatty, crunchy and spicy nature is a lush counterpart to tomatoes’ acidic juiciness. Salt the cut tomatoes and let their juices spill into a bowl or onto a platter, then drizzle them with chilli crisp. The liquid that accumulates beneath the tomatoes will be a combination of spritzy juices and fiery oil. You’ll want to slurp every drop.
Need some recipes to start? Tomato-Lentil Salad With Spicy Tahini | Tomato and Burrata Salad With Chile Crisp | Chile Crisp Chickpea Rice Bowls | Chile Crisp Tofu, Tomatoes and Cucumbers | Dumpling Tomato Salad With Chile Crisp Vinaigrette
6. Grate them
“Grating a tomato somehow emphasises everything delicious about it,” my colleague Tejal Rao wrote in 2021. See what she means by halving a large, ripe tomato through its belly, like a burger bun.
Then, swipe the cut sides on the large holes of a box grater into a bowl. Sip what collects. If it doesn’t excite you, add salt and maybe a little sugar or lemon juice until it does. Then spoon it over toasted bread, yoghurt, pasta and more.
Need some recipes to start? Pan con Tomate | Fresh Tomato and Yogurt Dip | Tomato-Butter Pasta | Paneer con Tomate
7. Bake low and slow
Tomatoes have a lot of water in them, and water doesn’t taste like much. Get rid of that moisture, and you’ll have a tomato that’s more savoury and silky. When you bake the tomatoes slowly in a generous amount of butter or oil, the water goes away, and the tomato’s flavour concentrates.
The low temperature means the fruit’s sugars won’t burn; instead, they’ll caramelise and even get sticky in places, like candy.
