How To Peel a Tomato

Most chefs and cookbook authors recommend plunging tomatoes into boiling water to remove their skins. This is bad advice and I urge you to dispense with this technique, as it cooks up to ¼ inch of the tomato's outer flesh and also dilutes its flavor. Here's an easier way:

How to Peel a Tomato

Directions

  1. Turn a stove top burner to high. Set your tomatoes on some sort of pan next to the stove.

  2. Skewer each tomato, one at a time, through its stem end with a sturdy fork and then rotate the tomato in the flame or close to the burner, taking about 30 seconds or so to turn it all the way. The skin will sear and pop as you do this. Set each tomato back on its pan and continue until all the tomatoes are seared.

  3. When you are finishing, take the pan to your work surface and use your fingers to peel off the skin, which should come off easily, though out-of-season and supermarket tomatoes made need extra help--I use a vegetable peeler--as they typically have thicker skins than backyard and farmers market tomatoes.

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