Heirloom tomato season: how to buy, store and cook them
For a few short weeks, heirloom tomatoes are the best thing in the market. Striped, ribbed and every colour from gold to deep purple, they taste nothing like the pale supermarket kind.
How to choose
Ignore the shape and the colour: heirlooms are meant to look a little wild. Pick each tomato up instead. A ripe one feels heavy for its size and gives slightly when you press near the stem.
Smell the stem end too. A sweet, green, almost grassy smell means it was picked ripe. No smell usually means no flavour.
A ripe tomato should feel heavier than it looks and smell like the plant it grew on.
Ravi, tomato grower, Bhuj
How to store them
Never put whole tomatoes in the fridge: the cold dulls their flavour and turns the flesh mealy. Keep them on the counter, stem side down, out of direct sun, and eat them within three days.
Tip: slightly firm tomatoes ripen in a paper bag with a banana in a day or two.
Ten-minute salad
This is less a recipe than a method. Good tomatoes need very little help.
- Slice the tomatoes into thick rounds and wedges. Season with salt and leave for five minutes.
- Scatter the onion over a platter, add the tomatoes and any juices.
- Whisk the oil and vinegar, spoon over and finish with torn basil and pepper.
More ways to use them
Grate overripe tomatoes onto toasted sourdough with garlic and olive oil, blitz them into a cold soup, or slow-roast halves for an hour to concentrate their sweetness.
2 comments
Meera J.2 days ago
Made the salad for lunch today. The salting trick makes such a difference, thank you!
Arjun S.3 days ago
Do you have a tip for tomatoes that are still a bit firm? Mine arrived slightly under-ripe.