How to cut tomatoes best (for every preparation)
Although you can find tomatoes all year round, they’re naturally starting to taste their best now. On your avocado toast, next to your fried eggs, in a caprese or stirred through a pasta salad at the last minute – tomatoes are the best! But if you always attack them somewhat randomly with a blunt knife, you should read these tips, because you can cut or chop tomatoes the right way for every different preparation…
I can’t imagine spring and summer without homemade salsa, which I then pile sky-high onto a tortilla chip, half of it tumbling off before it reaches my mouth. No problem! But dicing those tomatoes is where most of the work is. Read here how best to cut tomatoes for every purpose.
The right tools
If you want to do it properly and don’t want to ruin your summer tomato haul, a very sharp serrated tomato knife is indispensable. Never use it for anything else, so it doesn’t become blunt and leave you merely denting your tomato. An office knife (a small, pointed, non-serrated kitchen knife) is also handy, and I have boards in different sizes with a blood groove, or in this case a tomato-juice groove. I don’t like the liquid that would otherwise run off the board, end up underneath it, and slowly disappear beneath all the kitchen appliances on the counter, never to be wiped up again.
Core it
Whatever you’re going to use your tomato for, you’ll probably want to remove the hard, whitish bit beneath the stem first. Use that little office knife for this. Hold your tomato on the board with one hand, and use the tip of the knife to cut out the core at an angle while rotating the tomato. After that, you can do anything you like with your tomato.
Wedges
If you manage to get hold of truly fantastic tomatoes, they need little more than the best olive oil and a little Maldon salt. Cut the tomatoes (with the core removed) in half and then into wedges. Drizzle and sprinkle – and your tomato salad is ready. We certainly wouldn’t say no to a shallot cut into whisper-thin rings on top, either.
Slices
Indispensable for the tastiest hamburgers, the aforementioned caprese, or a beautiful vegetable mille-feuille. Place the tomato on its side on the board, curl the fingertips of the hand holding the tomato inward, and use your serrated knife to cut slices to your desired thickness.
Seedless
This is my go to method for that salsa. I don’t want it to be too wet, otherwise the chips become soggy so quickly, and the inside of a tomato, however deliciously umami those seeds are in their liquid, makes the salsa too watery. For this method, you don’t need to remove the core first, because you cut it away along with the seeds. First cut the tomato into small wedges, hold the wedge by the core side, and move your knife flat along the fleshy edge beneath the seeds towards the core. Cut that piece away last, including the core. You can then cut the ‘empty’ piece of tomato that remains into thin strips and subsequently into small cubes.
Stuffed
Stuffing your vegetables for a lovely retro touch (although tomatoes are fruits) is also an option. To do this, you need to hollow out the tomato, and the easiest way is to cut off the top first, then carefully use your office knife to cut around the inside, separating the seed chambers from the flesh, and finally scoop it out carefully with a tablespoon. Ideal for this healthy prawn-and-tomato recipe.
Peeled
For hot preparations with fresh tomatoes, it’s almost always tastier to remove the skin, so you won’t have to pick all those curled-up, tough loose skins out of everything later. You can submerge them in a pan of boiling water and then hold them in a bowl of iced water, but you can also simply boil water in a full kettle or electric kettle, score the bottoms of the tomatoes, place them in a colander and slowly pour the boiling water over them. Then start at the points where you made the cross with your knife and pull off the skins. Chop or cut them as you like, for example into cubes for a light broth with mussels and leek.
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