First, A Hack for Slicing Cherry Tomatoes
Slicing cherry tomatoes individually is kind of a pain. We recommend two things to avoid this. First, eat them whole. Second, if you must slice them, use this trick to do the lot of them at once.
1. You’ll need two lids from plastic containers. Fill one with the whole tomatoes, and place the other on top.
2. Hold the top lid to keep everything in place and carefully slice through the tomatoes with a sharp knife.
3. And that's it! Instantly halved cherry tomatoes. Now start cooking.
1. Brown Butter Tomatoes
With the last of the season’s tomatoes, make like Amanda Hesser and dress them in nutty brown butter. The recipe is as simple as it sounds: just slice a tomato, brown some butter, add some salt. You’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this all summer.
2. Heirloom Tomato and Lemon Mascarpone Tart
We’re partial to eating our tomatoes as soon as we get home from the market, with some salt and maybe a little olive oil. But if you want to get fancy about it, make this tart. Creamy mascarpone, savory pastry, and garlicky olive oil all make heirlooms shine.
3. Baked Ricotta and Goat Cheese with Candied Tomatoes
It’s easy to roll your eyes at the claim that vegetables taste like candy, but in this recipe, it’s really true. (Seriously, try it.) Brown sugar and vermouth give cherry tomatoes a caramelized cloak that’s infused with marjoram and piled generously atop a mess of baked cheese. Convinced yet?
4. My Best Tomato Sandwich
We’ve shown you this before, but think it deserves a second run: a ripe tomato plus mayonnaise plus two slices of good white bread is just the best. Add a little salt, a grind of pepper, and you'll want to eat one of these every day until the tomatoes are gone. (And you should.)
5. Sweet & Savory Tomato Jam
This jam will be your new go-to condiment on the fridge door. Swirled with sugar but spiced with cumin and coriander, it strikes the perfect middle ground between sweet and savory. Use it on everything from grilled meats to your morning toast.
6. Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup
For a riff on creamy tomato soup, make this. (We recommend a grilled cheese to go alongside.) Roast your tomatoes with garlic, then mash everything with a heavy-handed pour of cream. Pour it into a big mug if you want to make it even more fun to eat.
7. A Tomato Sandwich Worthy of a Little Bacon
You think avocado makes a tomato sandwich better? We raise you bacon. In an aioli. It’s an aioli for the ages, and it gets along famously with tomatoes — but you can also slather it on toast long after those are gone.
8. Alice Waters's Ratatouille
Alice Waters gives this well-worn classic a few smart, modern details (like red chile flakes and a basil bouquet) to make it an updated dish you’d be proud to serve on your table. Go to the market, get pounds (and pounds) of vegetables — there is no better way to break them all down.
9. Mozzarella and Roasted Cherry Tomato Salad
This caprese-inspired salad is a perfect first course for a dinner party. Cherry tomatoes get a quick blast of oven heat and then are cooled, combined with a good, fruity olive oil, and scattered over a platter full of fresh mozz. It’s as delicious as it is pretty.
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