How to Slice and Dice a Tomato

The real key to slicing and dicing tomatoes well is having the right kind of knife—either an extremely sharp chef's or santoku knife or a (preferably also sharp) serrated blade. That's 90% of the battle right there. With a knife that's up to the task, you should be able to simply drop the tomato on the upward-facing blade and have it split neatly in two (you do not need to actually do this—leave it for the infomercials).

Assuming your knife is capable, here's how to slice and dice like the pros.

How to Peel Tomatoes

Peeling tomatoes is necessary for dishes where the papery texture is not desirable. There are two ways to go about it:

• If you are peeling many tomatoes, start by bringing a full pot of water to a boil. As it's heating, use a sharp chef's knife or paring knife to cut a tiny "X" into the skin of the tomato opposite the stem end. Plunge the tomatoes into the boiling water for 10 seconds, then quickly cool them under cold running water. The skins should slip right off, especially if the tomato is properly ripe.

• If you are peeling only a few tomatoes, it doesn't make sense to wait for a full pot of water to boil. You can either cut the "X" and then hold the tomatoes over an open flame using metal tongs and rotate it until all the skin has separated from the flesh, or you can simply fully peel it with a sharp knife.

To Slice Tomatoes

It's usually best to slice tomatoes into rounds parallel to the equator, not pole-to-pole, but either works. To cut slices parallel to the equator, trim off a tiny bottom slice of tomato to remove the remnants of the blossom end. Then continue to slice the tomato into slabs.

You will also want to cut out the core where the vine once connected to the fruit. You can do this while the tomato is still whole, or pop it out once you've cut off a few slices of the tomato (as pictured here), since it will sit very flat that way. Then finish up your final slices by cutting through the tomato with the knife blade parallel to the cutting board and your free hand on top to stabilize the tomato. Make sure to keep your fingers of the free hand arcing upwards so the stay out of the path of the knife.

To Cut Tomatoes Into Wedges

Cut the tomato in half from pole to pole. Then, using your knife, notch out the core from each half.

Set each half on the cutting board cut side down and slice into wedges in a pole-to-pole direction.

To Cut Tomatoes Into Large Chunks

Start by cutting the tomato into large wedges, then cut those wedges crosswise to form large chunks, which can be great in chunky salads.

To Dice a Tomato

To cut larger dice, simply cut the tomato into slices as described above, then set each slice down on the work surface and make a series of parallel cuts first one way, then rotate the tomato 90 degrees and make a second series of parallel cuts to form the dice.

If you want to make finer dice such as a brunoise, you will likely need to contend with the seeds, which can muck up a fine dice and make it seem like a pile of mush. To do that, you're better off working with a fleshier tomato such as a plum/Roma. First cut that tomato into pole-to-pole quarters, and then, using your knife, cut the interior seeds out of each quarter. You'll be left with the exterior wall of tomato flesh. Cut that into fine dice/brunoise.

Shopping and Storage

As with most vegetables, look for undamaged tomatoes that seem heavy for their weight, like a water balloon. Fully ripe tomatoes should feel soft and brimming with juices—as if they'll pop if you squeeze them too hard.

Because tomatoes are so delicate, they can't be shipped over long distances when fully ripe. Instead, the tomatoes are picked from the vine when still completely green and treated with ethylene gas during transport. Ethylene is a gas that's naturally produced by vegetables which triggers the ripening process. By introducing it to the green tomatoes, it causes them to turn a pink-orange color prematurely. They may look red on the supermarket shelf, but their flavor is still close to that of an unripe green tomato—even the more expensive "vine-ripe" varieties.

That's why you can't find good tomatoes in the winter. Unless you live in regions where tomatoes grow year-round, the only way to get a really good vine-ripened tomatoes is to wait until they grow near enough to you that they can be shipped fully ripened.

Tomatoes should always be stored with the stem-end facing down. It's the most stable position for the tomato, and also helps avoid excess evaporation out of the scar where the stem was removed from the vine. Your tomato will last about twice as long in this position.

As for the age-old refrigeration question, we recommend keeping tomatoes out of the fridge most of the time, which allows them to continue to improve in (or, at the very least maintain) flavor and texture. However, if you have tomatoes that are the absolute peak of ripeness and will not be eating them the same day, our extensive testing has found that in most cases the fridge is your best option to delay inevitable decline into over-ripeness; and with high-quality, in-season, truly ripe tomatoes, the fridge does little to no harm.