How to Peel a Tomato

In my last blog, I posted a recipe that called for peeling tomatoes.  This is something that I hadn't actually attempted to do myself before making that dish.  For the Pappa al Pomodoro, however, I felt that using end-of-summer fresh produce would be the best way to highlight their flavor so I launched in to de-skinning these round red delicacies myself.  Truthfully, if I were to make this in the wintertime, I would use canned, peeled tomatoes, but there's no need for that now.

Start off by making an "x" on the bottom of the tomato

Submerge in pan of boiling water and cook on each side for 15-20 seconds, until skin wrinkles

Allow to cool and with knife or tongs, peel skin away starting from the "x." 

The skin should come off easily without taking the flesh.

Tomatoes are ready for chopping up to be put into dishes that call for peeled tomatoes.

Kitchen Witch Tip:

To capture even more of the tomato flavor for the above dish, when de-seeding the tomatoes while chopping them, put the seeds and other bits into a sieve placed over a bowl, and push the liquid through the sieve to get some of the reserved juices to add to the pan when cooking down the tomatoes.

Buon appetito!