1. Look for firm, deep coloured tomatoes without any soft spots. It’s best to store tomatoes at room temperature as chilling can damage cell structure in flesh and give them a mealy texture.
2. To slice tomatoes, remove green stalk and turn tomato on its side. Always cut across the width, as this prevents seeds from falling out. Use a thin serrated knife as this cuts through the skin well.
3. To remove skin from a tomato, pull out green stalk, then turn tomato over and score a shallow cross in bottom. Put in a bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave for 20sec. Remove from boiling water and plunge into cold water briefly to cool slightly. Take out of water and peel the skin away easily using fingers. If it doesn’t then put tomatoes back in boiling water for a further 20-30sec.
4. To deseed a tomato, cut in half lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out seeds.
5. To chop, flatten halves on a board and cut in half down middle. Slice pieces into thin strips, then rotate strips a quarter turn and thinly slice again, to create small diced pieces. These peeled, deseeded and chopped tomatoes are known as tomato concasse.
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White China oval plate, Sophie Conran. Classic glass bowl (1 / 2 litres), Pyrex. Oak chopping board, Lakeland. Polished Thermosystem kettle (1.8 litres), Magimix UK. Small serrated knife, slotted spoon, chef's own.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
