I Tried This Method for Skinning Tomatoes and It Really Works
Vegetable peels are good for you, or so they say. Some don’t even need such literal “eat your veggies” marketing—potato skins, which add texture and a satisfying crunch, certainly have their fans. Tomato skin, not very good.
Some skin is fine on raw tomatoes and even acceptable on fried ones, but I can think of other times where I’d rather have those chewy, shriveled bits go somewhere, including when making soups or sauces. But skinning tomatoes, which usually requires blanching, can be a labor-intensive and messy job. But then I tried an alternative method: a little trick with a grater, which promised to remove the skin easily. And it really worked.
Although the practice of grating tomatoes has been around for a long time, for some reason I had never tried it until recently when an Instagram post from chef Sarah Moulton reminded me of it. I figured with all the late summer tomatoes laying around my kitchen, now would be a good time to see if this hack was worth the hype. I cut a ripe tomato in half, pressed it into the large holes of a grater, and began peeling. After that first pomodoro I was convinced. I think I’m entering the age of grated tomatoes.
With this method, the flavor gel, seeds and pulp come out the other side of the grater into a bowl, leaving the skin behind. At first, depending on the type of tomato, you will encounter resistance and may even feel the grater tearing the skin of the tomato. Hang in there, you just have to get started. I had the most success when I rotated half the tomato back and forth as I pressed. The liquid and gel of the seeds will go through first, and then you can start using the peel as a lever to push through more loose tomato pulp until there is nothing left on the grater but the peel of half a tomato.
In fact, my tomato ended up peeled and chopped, and I didn’t risk my fingertips around the sharp blade.
When to use grated tomatoes
This method of skinning tomatoes is ideal for pan con tomato or tomato toast, a popular Spanish snack. This is a sensational and simple appetizer (recipe below) that brings out the best in flavorful, ripe tomatoes. Essentially, this is what you should be doing right now.
But beyond that, well beyond summer, you can use this trick to peel the skins off a bunch of tomatoes to make fresh or cooked tomato sauce and, as temperatures continue to drop, tomato soup or tomato risotto. Basically, you can use it for any dish where the tomatoes will cook and end up in the sauce and where you don’t want to fish out skinny bits of skin.
A simple pan con tomato recipe
Ingredients:
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2 ripe Campari tomatoes
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2 slices chewy bread
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1 clove of garlic
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Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
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A little flake salt
1. Remove the skin from the tomatoes by cutting them in half and pressing the pulp through a grater into a bowl. I threw away the skin.
2. Toast the bread. I also like to char the edges with a gas stove flame. Rub a clove of garlic over the top of the toasted bread. There won’t actually be any chunks left, but the butter and flavor will remain on the bread.
3. Drizzle the bread with a little olive oil or brush it with a brush. Place the tomato seeds and pulp on the slices of bread. Finish them with olive oil and a pinch of flaky salt.