Topic · Clear Soups Mastery
Tomato Fondue and Diced Tomatoes
Tomato fondue and diced tomatoes are both made with Tomato Concassée. Tomato Concassé is diced tomatoes that have been peeled and the seeds removed.
Recipes that use Concassé are striving for a finer result, showing that if you cared enough about the quality of the final product, you would remove seeds that can be tough and bitter and the skin which does not soften during cooking.
To make Tomato Concassé, start with fresh, ripe tomatoes.
- Bring a pot of water, deep enough to cover the tomatoes, to a boil.
- For each tomato, remove the core where the stem used to be by using the tip of a paring knife to carve a small cone-shaped piece out of the stem end.
- Next, turn the tomato over and on the other end mark a small cross in the skin with the knife.
- Each cut should be about an inch (2.5 cm) long.
- Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 10 to 30 seconds then transfer them with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to stop cooking.
- Peel off the skin from the intersections of the cross-cut earlier.
- Once all of the tomatoes are peeled, cut each in half around its middle and gently squeeze out the seeds.
- Discard the skins and seeds.
- After all of the tomatoes are seeded, chop them up.
Depending on the recipe and your inclination, this may be a rough chop for a tomato fondue or a fine dice for a garnish.
Some cooks ignore the peeling and seeding and simply chop up their tomatoes for the recipe. However, considering how little work it takes to make a Concassé, it is sometimes worth the effort to produce a really top quality dish. However, if you are vegetarian and want to benefit from all the nutritional value of your tomatoes, be advised that a lot of vitamins are in the skin.