Produce
Tomato
Also called ripe tomato, plum tomato, Tomatoes
A fruit used as a vegetable, or as the body of a sauce. Plum types are meatier for cooking; a ripe salad tomato is juicier and more fragile.
Origin
Domesticated in the Andes, transformed in Mexico, then taken to the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia, where it remade Italian and Indian sauces.
Flavour
Sweet-acid when ripe, with a savoury depth once cooked down. Tinned tomatoes, in winter, often taste better than the fresh ones on offer.
How to use it
For shakshuka and butter chicken, grate ripe tomatoes on a box grater (skin left in your hand) or chop and cook until the raw edge goes and the oil separates. Salt early to draw juice, then cook that juice down or the sauce stays watery. High heat and a crowded pan steam them; give them time. Never refrigerate a good uncut tomato if you can help it โ cold kills the aroma. Tomato paste needs a fry in oil to lose its metallic note.
Storage
Counter, stem side down, until ripe, out of the sun.
Recipes using it
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