7 Ways to Turn a Bunch of Tomatoes Into the Best Meal of Your Life

“Let Ali Slagle’s expert tips guide you.

 

Tomatoes don’t need any more promotion, and that’s exactly why I wanted to write about how to improve them.

 

Every month for more than a year, this series has shared seven ways to upgrade common ingredients and dishes. Sometimes, it’s a space to sing about the unsung (see canned tuna and zucchini). Other times, it ensures beloved foods live up to their hype: that tonight’s salmon is as silky, pasta salad is as lively and tomatoes are as summer-satisfying as you hoped.

 

And yet, fresh tomatoes are one of the most beguiling ingredients for me to cook with, as someone who professionally creates recipes. (To the tomato avoidant, I see you.) While I crave their tangy juices, the flavor of tomatoes can be unpredictable. They can be bland, bitter or even as sugary as an overripe strawberry. It’s hard to know what kind you have until it’s home, and you’re committed to using it. But over the course of creating about 40 recipes that feature fresh tomatoes for New York Times Cooking, I’ve come to rely on certain moves that catapult their quality. These seven recommendations make each bite that much better. So read up, and then return to feasting on your tomatoes.

 

1. Consider their size

 

When it comes to tomatoes, size matters, both in the size you buy and cut. Tomatoes that resemble gumballs, like cherries, grapes or Sungolds, will be more consistently sweet because they have less space for water to dilute their juices. They also have a higher peel-to-flesh ratio, which helps them maintain their shape when cooked or marinated.

 

 

If you cut larger tomatoes into pieces the size of a cherry tomato, they have a tendency to turn mushy. But keep those cuts chunky — say, 1- to 2-inch pieces or fat wedges — and they’ll stay intact better, so you can save their juices for your bite instead of the bowl.

 

 

2. Amplify the acid with lemon

 

While tomatoes are often dressed with vinegars, go for lemon juice instead. The gentler acid enhances the brightness of tomatoes without announcing itself as loudly, which means the tomato’s essence keeps the focus.

 

3. Pair with other fruit

 

While often used as a vegetable, tomatoes can also be used in fruity applications. (Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit.) Think of it as a win-win situation: Peaches, pomegranates and melons bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes, while tomatoes’ acidity gives them some zing.

 

 

4. Add dairy

 

There’s power in tomatoes and dairy. When their acid and fat, sweet and tang meet up, watch out. The two balance each other beautifully, and their potential for greatness is possible no matter the type of cheese, whether milkier fresh options like mozzarella, ricotta and burrata or nuttier aged Parmesan and Cheddar.

 

 

5. Eat with chile crisp

 

Chile crisp’s fatty, crunchy and spicy nature is a lush counterpart to tomatoes’ acidic juiciness. Salt the cut tomatoes and let their juices spill out into a bowl or onto a platter, and then drizzle with chile crisp. The liquid that accumulates beneath the tomatoes will be a combination of spritzy juices and fiery oil. You’ll want to slurp every drop.

 

6. Grate them

 

“Grating a tomato somehow emphasizes everything delicious about it,” my colleague Tejal Rao wrote in 2021. See what she means by halving a large, ripe tomato through its belly, like a burger bun. Then, swipe the cut sides on the large holes of a box grater into a bowl. Sip what collects. If it doesn’t excite you, add salt and maybe a little sugar or lemon juice until it does. Then spoon it over toasted bread, yogurt, pasta and more.

 

 

7. Bake low and slow

 

Tomatoes have a lot of water in them, and water doesn’t taste like much. Get rid of that moisture, and you’ll have a tomato that’s more savory and silky. When you bake the tomatoes slowly in a generous amount of butter or oil, the water goes away, and the tomato’s flavor concentrates. The low temperature means the fruit’s sugars won’t burn; instead, they’ll caramelize and even get sticky like candy in spots.” [1]

 

1. 7 Ways to Turn a Bunch of Tomatoes Into the Best Meal of Your Life. Slagle, Ali.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Jul 20, 2026.