Although tomatoes can usually be eaten with their skin on, there are people for whom the skin is difficult to digest and causes abdominal pain. They therefore skin their tomatoes before eating them. Skinned tomatoes are also easier to use in the kitchen for fine sauces, soups and purees.
Tomatoes are easy to peel when cooked
Skinning tomatoes - step by step
When eating tomatoes fresh, skin peeling is not necessary unless the skin is causing digestive problems. Tomatoes are often used as an addition to various roasts or as a basis for sauces. The tomato will break down during cooking, but its skin will not cook off. So there are always small or larger pieces of skin visible in the dish. If you also want to produce a visually excellent menu, skin the tomatoes before you use them.
- Wash the tomatoes under running water. The tomato should be ripe and firm. Muddy or already wrinkled specimens are difficult to skin.
- Remove the stem of the tomato, if there is one, and the base of the stem (use a sharp knife).
- Using a sharp knife, score the tomato in a cross shape opposite the base of the stalk.
- Fill a saucepan with water and heat it up.
- Once the water is simmering, put the tomatoes in. It is best to use a slotted spoon for this.
- Boil the tomatoes in the water for about half a minute.
- Remove the tomato with the slotted spoon and immediately place in a bowl of cold water. In this way, the cooking process that has started is abruptly interrupted. The tomato remains firm, but its skin tears open and can be peeled off in strips.
- Now use a sharp knife to peel off the skin of the tomato in strips.
Blanching tomatoes, in addition to being easy to peel off the skin, has another beneficial side effect.
The brief heating and subsequent quenching slows down the ripening process in the tomato, it can be kept longer in the refrigerator. It also refreshes the color of the tomato and by peeling off the skin you also remove the nitrates and residues of pesticides it contains.
Skinned tomatoes not only look better, they're healthier too.
Skin tomatoes in the microwave
Although this method saves time, it should be used with caution. You must not take your eyes off the device and actually heat the tomatoes for just a few seconds. If heated too long, the tomatoes will burst and the inside of the microwave will look like a battlefield.
- Wash your tomatoes and remove the stalk and base.
- Using a knife, score the tomato in a criss-cross pattern on the opposite side of the stem.
- Place the tomato on a plate in the microwave.
- Set the heat level to 650 watts. A higher wattage will cause the tomato to burst.
- Heat the tomato for 20 seconds. If the tomato stays longer in the cooking space, it will first become mushy and then burst.
- Take the tomato out of the micro and peel off the skin in strips with the knife.
Use skinned tomatoes
The classic dish made with skinned tomatoes is tomato sauce or tomato soup. To do this, the tomatoes are crushed and pureed in a blender after they have been skinned.
For the sauce, sweat the chopped onions and garlic and deglaze with the tomato puree. If the sauce is still too thick, it can be refined with a dash of red wine or cream. If you don't want alcohol or cream, add some vegetable broth.
Taste the sauce and pour it over freshly cooked spaghetti. Sprinkle a little grated Parmesan on top and the Italian pasta is ready.
Proceed in a similar way for a tomato soup. Here, too, sweat onions and garlic, pour on pureed tomatoes and extend the creamy soup with broth. Refine the soup with a dash of cream. Season with salt and pepper and finally sprinkle some chopped parsley on top. Boiled rice tastes good as a soup ingredient.
tips
Skinned and pureed tomatoes can easily be frozen for almost a year. Color and taste are retained.
If you would like to add the skinned tomatoes to a mixed salad, it is advisable to remove the seeds from the tomatoes after skinning them. To do this, cut the tomato in half with a sharp knife and remove the seeds with a teaspoon.