Tomatoes
1737 recipes found
Melon, Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
This is an extremely simple, yet spectacularly refreshing salad, especially when made from height-of-the-season summer produce. Ripe melon mirrors the tomatoes’ sweetness. Cucumber, a relative of melon, gives both crunch and flavor. A handful of basil and mint leaves, and a squeeze of fresh lime juice added just before serving, bring it all together.
Corn Salad With Tomatoes, Basil and Cilantro
High summer produce comes together in this simple mix, tangy with lime juice and full of fresh herbs. Even in the height of the season, corn gets a touch sweeter when heated, and the easiest way to do it is in the microwave. It takes just a few minutes to zap the corn cobs in their husks, which makes them easy to shuck. The silks will slip right off the sweeter and still-crisp corn. Picking basil and cilantro leaves by hand then tearing them right over the salad keeps their delicate fragrance intact. Serve this with anything off the grill or alongside tacos or sandwiches.
Enchilada Sauce
This quick, basic enchilada sauce can easily be doubled (or tripled) and frozen so you can satisfy a sudden enchilada craving. For a more traditional Mexican flavor profile, you can experiment with ancho, guajillo or pasilla chile powders. If you’d prefer some heat, add a few teaspoons of chipotle chile powder or chopped chipotles in adobo, or, in a pinch, cayenne or red-pepper flakes.
Steamed Mussels With Tomatoes and Chorizo
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Simplicity itself, if you can find a bag of mussels at the store. Scrub and debeard them as necessary. Then grab a big pot, and use it to sauté some cubed chorizo in olive oil over medium-high heat. When it starts to crisp, add a few handfuls of halved cherry tomatoes and a clove or two of chopped garlic. Let the tomatoes blister in the fat, then add the mussels and a glass of white wine. Cover the pot and allow the mussels to steam open. (If at the end you have mussels that haven’t opened, ditch them: They’re dead.) Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with plenty of toast for the sopping. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Grilled Mushroom Skewers in Red Chile Paste
Fire up the grill and let the aromas of vegetables and chile-marinated mushrooms charred over an open flame permeate the neighborhood. This simple recipe is fun to assemble, and a crowd pleaser, making it ideal for cookouts. Meaty king oyster mushrooms are smothered in a guajillo chile sauce that includes earthy achiote, which stains the mushrooms red. Liquid aminos or soy sauce add saltiness and umami, and maple syrup brings a touch of sweetness. If you don’t have the vegetables below on hand, you can easily swap them out for others that will cook in the same time frame. Serve this as a main dish with your favorite cooked grains or salad, or as a side dish to just about anything.
Roasted Potato Salad With BBQ Dressing
If barbecue potato chips were a salad, then this would be it. It’s hard to pick which component of this picnic dish is the greater star: the crispy roasted potatoes or the smoky, paprika-tinged barbecue sauce dressing. Bejeweled with crunchy red onions, which are soaked in water to mellow their bite, and showered with fresh dill, this colorful side dish is the savory crowd-pleaser you’ll want to bring to any cookout or potluck.
Vegan Bolognese With Mushrooms and Walnuts
Some may balk at this version of Bolognese, the classic Italian ragù, because it bypasses the meat and dairy that are traditionally integral to the dish. But this recipe is equally rich, robust and complex, owing to seared mushrooms and toasted walnuts, which are bolstered by balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, soy sauce and Marmite. A popular British sandwich spread made from concentrated yeast extract, Marmite brings salty, bitter notes to the sauce, but you can substitute a vegetable bouillon concentrate paste — or skip it entirely. Enjoy the sauce over cooked pasta or employ it in this vegetarian lasagna Bolognese.
Egg Curry
Eggs have long been an important source of nutrition across the country, and form the base of many classic regional dishes. In Andhra Pradesh, this spicy, tomato-rich egg curry would have firmer, more crumbly yolks (boiled for about 11 or 12 minutes), but I like to cook them a little softer (8 minutes, max).
Sweet-and-Spicy Grilled Vegetables With Burrata
A colorful platter of soft, grilled vegetables in a sweet-and-spicy sauce can be the centerpiece of a light summery meal; just add some creamy cheese for richness and crusty bread to round things out. This recipe is extremely adaptable. You mix and match the vegetables, increasing the amounts of your favorites (or the ones you can get your hands on), and skipping anything you don’t have. And if your grill is large enough, you can make several different kinds of vegetables at the same time. Just don’t crowd them so they cook evenly.
Pan Con Tomate
Some version of tomatoes on toast — a juicy American B.L.T. or Italian tomato-topped bruschetta — is always a good idea, but that's especially true during high summer, when tomatoes are at their peak. One superior combination comes from Barcelona, where a slice of toast is rubbed with garlic and juicy ripe tomatoes, then anointed with olive oil. Most Catalan cooks simply cut the tomato crosswise and vigorously massage the toasted bread with the cut side. Others grate the tomato flesh and spoon it over the bread. This version adds tomato slices and a scattering of cherry tomatoes for a substantial first course.
Halloumi With Corn, Cherry Tomatoes and Basil
Seared cubes of halloumi get melty and soft on their insides and dark brown and a little crisp on the surface, making it almost impossible not to devour them all as they come out of the pan. But try to resist, because they’re even better tossed with a quick sauté of summer corn and tomatoes, seasoned with basil. Slivers of red onions, folded in raw at the end, add crunch and sweetness, while a squeeze of fresh lime makes everything tangy and fresh. Although this dish is at its most sublime made with fresh summer corn and ripe tomatoes, it’s nearly as good in winter made with frozen corn. Serve it for a light, meatless dinner or a substantial side dish with roasted or grilled chicken or fish.
Spaghettini With Bottarga and Colatura
In the Middle Ages, monks on Italy’s Amalfi Coast were tasked with preserving anchovies, the local catch. They discovered that the amber liquid exuded by the aging fish — colatura di alici, literally “anchovy drippings” — could be used as a briny seasoning. Nodding to this tradition, the chef Diego Rossi, at the acclaimed trattoria Trippa in Milan, unites colatura and bottarga di muggine (cured gray mullet roe) in a pasta that is powerfully marine. The sauce isn’t cooked: Instead, he lets the ingredients — bottarga, yellow tomato sauce, colatura, basil, garlic, lemon and chile — melt among the strands of hot spaghettini. The sweetness of the tomato tempers the bitterness of the bottarga. (It’s best to make the pasta in single servings, to control that bitterness, and to eat it immediately.) The umami is everywhere, in the bottarga, the tomato, and, delicate yet insistent, the colatura, calling back to a remembered sea.
Vegetable Soup With Tamarind and Lemongrass
Tamarind is the prominent flavor in this soup, showing up as a subtle sour ingredient that gently awakens the senses. This light, brothy soup packs a delicious punch from ginger and lemongrass, with a breath of heat from chiles. It’s closely modeled after Sundanese sayur asem, Isan tom klong pla and Timorese sour fish soup, which all so successfully achieve the delicate balance of tart and spice. Like those, this soup provides a wonderful base for variation and nods to convenience. Medallions of sweet potato and daikon are poached, just enough to remain crisp, while tender tofu (soft or silken) absorbs the essence of the fragrant stew. A shower of fresh herbs adds the finishing touch. Serve piping hot, by itself or ladled over steamed rice or noodles.
Eggs in Purgatory
It’s unclear whether "purgatory" refers to the bubbling red tomato sauce used to poach the eggs in this easy skillet meal or the fire of the red-pepper flakes that the sauce is spiked with. In either case, this speedy Southern Italian dish, whipped up from pantry staples, makes for a heavenly brunch, lunch or light supper. Note that the anchovies are not traditional, but they add a subtle fishy richness to the tomatoes. However, feel free to leave them out.
Pizza Sauce for Chicago Thin-Crust Pizza
In Chicago, pizza sauce tends to have an intensely savory flavor that comes from cooking down canned tomatoes heavily seasoned with dried herbs, like marjoram and oregano, and garlic. (This version uses a combination of fresh garlic and garlic powder.) There is debate over how sweet, how tart and how cooked the sauce should be. The sauce cooks pretty thoroughly on the pizza, so cooking it in advance changes it only incrementally. Sweetness and tartness can always be adjusted with extra salt or vinegar. This recipe is part of our complete recipe for a Chicago thin-crust pizza. View the recipe for the finished pizza, as well as recipes for the dough and Chicago-style Italian sausage.
Ropa Vieja
Flank steak braised with vegetables and aromatics until it shreds into strands is the national dish of Cuba, though the cooking process is popular throughout Central America and the Caribbean. In Cuba, it’s called ropa vieja, which translates to old clothes, a reference to the beef’s tattered appearance. In Venezuela and Colombia, you’d call it carne desmechada. This version starts with a sautéed base of peppers and onions, which is further enhanced with olives, capers, raisins and tomatoes. The flavorful mixture works equally well with flank steak, pork butt or even chicken thighs. Serve it with cooked black beans and rice.
Spicy Coconut Greens With Tomatoes and Shrimp
This dish is loosely inspired by laing, a Filipino dish of dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk that is traditionally made with pork and bagoong, a fermented fish or shrimp paste. This is quite a diversion, prepared with braised chard and topped with burst tomatoes and seared shrimp. You use only half the chard stems here, so you should reserve the extra stems to throw into soups, stews or your morning eggs. Get ahead by making these coconut greens up to two days in advance, then reheating to serve; the flavors will only improve over time. Serve with jasmine rice for a complete meal.
Fried Tagliatelle With Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes
Two pantry staples, chickpeas and pasta, come together to give you this hearty vegan main. (Do check the ingredient list on the packaging for your tagliatelle, as some may contain egg.) Frying the pasta nests before cooking them provides plenty of texture, even as the pasta softens and releases its starches into the chickpeas and their cooking water. Feel free to play around with the smoky tomato oil, adding different chiles or spices, such as cumin or coriander seeds. And be sure to start the night before by soaking your chickpeas. However, if you’re running low on time, you can also use two drained 14-ounce cans of chickpeas, adjusting liquid levels as necessary.
Liberian Chicken Gravy
A staple of Liberian cuisine, this chicken tastes complex with its mix of spicy heat and richness, but comes together simply in just one pan. For the chef Thalmus Hare and other Liberians, this dish is part of the Thanksgiving table. (Liberia is one of the only countries outside the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.) Peppers are staples in Liberian cuisine, and this recipe incorporates two kinds: sweet red bell peppers and more fiery habaneros. They’re a satisfying counterbalance to the intense chicken flavor that’s supercharged by both broth and Maggi seasoning. This shares similarities with Liberian pepper chicken, another popular dish, but is much saucier.
Grilled Cucumbers With Tomato-Cardamom Dressing and Mozzarella
Grilling cucumbers gives them a nice charred flavor while retaining their bite. Try to buy Persian cucumbers that are thicker as the thin ones can often be too flimsy to cook. Torn mozzarella adds richness to the cucumbers doused with a garlicky, spiced tomato dressing. (Feel free to cook the cucumbers on an outdoor grill, treating them in the same way.) If you’re into creamy cheeses, then burrata works very well here, too — or, you could keep this dish vegan by leaving out the mozzarella completely. It will still have a wonderful umami flavor without it. Make this a complete meal by serving alongside your protein of choice.
Cheesy Baked Pasta With Sausage and Ricotta
Like a cross between baked ziti and sausage lasagna, this mozzarella-topped pasta is rich with ricotta and crushed tomatoes — and cooks entirely in one pan, including the pasta. The Italian sausage adds meaty depth to the sauce, but vegetarians can leave it out or use their favorite plant-based sausage instead.
Cheesy Bread Balls in Tomato Sauce
It’s hard not to love this combination of tomato sauce, melted cheese, bread balls and garlic oil, which is sort of like a pizza, deconstructed. If you prefer not to stuff the bread balls, you can skip that part and simply roll them until round, baking them in the same way. The extra cheese can then be added to the sauce around the bread balls just before broiling. This dough method isn’t complicated, but you could work with store-bought pizza dough to save on time.
Roasted White Bean and Tomato Pasta
With a flavor profile inspired by pasta e fagioli, this weeknight pasta recipe coaxes rich flavor out of simple ingredients while enlisting the oven to create a luscious sauce from roasted tomatoes and white beans. Essentially, the dish requires just three steps: Boil pasta, roast your sauce ingredients, then stir together until the pasta is glossy. When roasted in the oven, the beans become crispy, like croutons, and break down in a way that helps thicken the sauce. Though a flurry of freshly grated cheese would be welcome on top, this otherwise-vegan dish doesn’t need it: The roasted tomato sauce is rich and luscious, fortified by starchy pasta water, roasted beans and a good glug of extra-virgin olive oil.
Lamb Meatball and Semolina Dumpling Soup With Collard Greens
This hearty soup is a meal in a bowl. It is very much inspired by Iraqi kubba hamuth. “Hamuth” means sour in Arabic, which refers to the soup’s sour tomato and lemon broth. Traditionally, the soup contains lamb-stuffed semolina dumplings called “kubba.” The divergence here is that they exist as two separate components — meatballs and semolina dumplings — and add a wonderful textural contrast. If you can’t find collard greens, feel free to swap these out for an equal amount of Tuscan kale.