Don’t peel your tomatoes, plus more tips for getting the best flavor
The Peninsula
There was a time when I would scoop out the seeds and gel from the inside of a tomato, because I didn t like the texture. I know now that I was throwi...
There was a time when I would scoop out the seeds and gel from the inside of a tomato, because I didn’t like the texture. I know now that I was throwing away both flavor and nutrition - and I’ve learned my lesson.
But how to get the most flavor out of tomatoes? It’s not always straightforward.
Unfortunately, a tomato’s flavor often falls victim to modern refrigeration, year-round supply and even state-of-the-art farming practices, yielding tasteless, rock-hard fruit hardly fit to top off a burger or blend into salsa. But don’t despair. Here are a few rules for getting the tastiest tomatoes onto your plate.
Use the entire tomato - Tomato lore is filled with myths and truths. Your family’s treasured tomato sauce recipe, handed down through the generations, probably includes strict instructions for skinning and seeding the tomatoes to get a smoother texture, but Harry Klee, emeritus professor at the University of Florida’s Horticultural Sciences Department, has been studying tomatoes for nearly 40 years and notes that today’s high-speed blenders negate such time-consuming efforts.
"I just cut off the stem scar and throw the whole tomato in the blender,” he says. "It comes out velvety smooth and you don’t lose any flavor or nutrition.”