Tomato Lessons From Top Chef

Filed in archive From Garden to Table , Ingredient Spotlight on June 20, 2010

© Muffet

Filmed last week in Washington DC, here's lessons about tomatoes from Top Chef University (by Peter Martin):

1. Never store tomatoes in the fridge. They lose flavor in lower temperatures. Apparently everyone (but me) knew this.

2. To peel a tomato: Cut out the core, carve a shallow X into the skin of the bottom, and throw the tomato into boiling water for fifteen seconds. Drop it in ice water to release the skin, and peel with a paring knife, starting where you cut the X.

3. Before you serve tomatoes in a salad, quarter them, put them in a colander, and sprinkle them with salt. Let them sit for ten minutes, then shake off the extra salt and liquid. The salt pulls out extra water and creates a more intense flavor.

4. Roasting tomatoes is easy. (Cut in half, lengthwise. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and thyme. Bake at 350 until the tomato is much smaller and caramelized on the edges - a little more than three hours.)

5. If you're going to roast tomatoes, don't start at 9 p.m.