Tomato 101: Your Complete Guide to Choosing, Storing, and Using Summer's Star Ingredient

Prime tomato season runs from July through September, and with more than a thousand varieties out there in every color, shape, and size imaginable, there's never been a better time to get to know this kitchen staple a little better. Whether you're working with a backyard haul, a farmers market score, or a grocery store flat, here's everything you need to make the most of tomato season.

Tomato 101: The Basics

Here's a fun bit of trivia for your next dinner party: tomatoes are botanically a berry, even though we treat them like a vegetable in the kitchen. They're native to South America and were first cultivated by the Aztecs in Mexico, who called them tomatl — "the swelling fruit." From there, tomatoes traveled the globe and became a foundational ingredient in cuisines from Italy to India.

The humble tomato was part of the Columbian Exchange, traveling from the America's to the rest of the world ... but probably didn't get any frequent flyer miles. Dang.

The tomato's journey to the rest of the world began in the early 1500s, when Spanish explorers carried tomato seeds back from Mexico to Spain. From there, the Spanish introduced the tomato to their colonies, including the Philippines, from which it spread across Southeast Asia and the rest of the Asian continent. Oddly enough, Europeans were slow to actually eat it: for decades the plant was grown mainly as an ornamental, picking up nicknames like "wolf peach" and "love apple," and many people believed it was poisonous since it belongs to the nightshade family. It took roughly two centuries for tomatoes to shake that reputation — it wasn't until the 18th century that tomatoes became widely eaten in Europe, particularly in Mediterranean countries like Italy — before becoming the kitchen essential we know today.

Today, tomatoes show up in more forms than almost any other produce item:

• Fresh — in a huge range of sizes, shapes, and colors

• Canned — whole, diced, crushed, or puréed, plain or pre-seasoned with basil, oregano, or chili

• Prepared — pasta sauces and salsas that make weeknight cooking easier (look for versions with reduced sodium and low added sugar)

• Sun-dried — concentrated, chewy, and intensely flavored, available packed in oil (ready to use in pastas, salads, and spreads) or dry-packed (lower in fat and calories, but worth rehydrating in warm water before use)

Getting to Know the Tomato Family

Part of what makes tomatoes so versatile is the sheer variety available. Here's a quick rundown of the types you're most likely to run into:

Beefsteak

The classic "big tomato" — large, meaty, and juicy with relatively few seeds. Best for thick slices on sandwiches and burgers, or simply salted and eaten on their own.

Heirloom

Open-pollinated varieties passed down over generations, prized for their irregular shapes, deep colors (everything from near-black to bright yellow and green-striped), and complex, often sweeter flavor. Best enjoyed simply — sliced with good olive oil and flaky salt.

Cherry and Grape

Small, sweet, and almost candy-like, these bite-sized tomatoes are perfect for snacking, salads, and roasting whole. Grape tomatoes tend to be slightly firmer and more oblong than round cherry tomatoes.

Roma (Plum)

Dense, low in moisture, and lower in seeds — the workhorse tomato of the kitchen. This is the variety most often used for canning, sauces, and pastes because it breaks down into a rich, thick consistency.

Green Tomatoes

Unripe tomatoes (of any variety) with a tart, firm bite — best known for fried green tomatoes, but also great pickled or in green salsa (salsa verde-style).

On-the-Vine

Not technically a separate variety, but a way of selling round, mid-size tomatoes still attached to the vine — typically very fresh and flavorful since they're picked closer to peak ripeness.

See my post on home canning for more tips on how to preserve foods for the pantry safely.

Choosing and Buying Tomatoes

.

In-season, locally grown tomatoes are almost always the most flavorful option. A few tips for choosing well:

• Visit your local farmers market or farm stand when possible

• At the grocery store, look for labels that say "locally grown"

• A ripe tomato should be fragrant, deeply colored, smooth-skinned, and firm, with a gentle give when you press it

Varieties popular in your region may not show up everywhere, so it's worth seeking out what's grown locally and trying something new.

Storing Tomatoes the Right Way

This is where a lot of people go wrong — and it can make a real difference in flavor.

• Keep ripe tomatoes at room temperature, stem-side down, to help prevent moisture loss through the stem end

• A fully ripened tomato will keep well for about a week at room temperature

• If you won't use them within that window, refrigerate to slow further ripening — but bring them back to room temperature before eating, since cold dulls the flavor

• Never refrigerate underripe tomatoes — cold temperatures halt the ripening process permanently, even if you warm them back up afterward

• To speed up ripening, place underripe tomatoes in a brown paper bag at room temperature with a ripe banana or apple — both release ethylene gas, which accelerates ripening.

What to Do with an Overabundance (or Overripe Tomatoes)

If your garden or CSA box has handed you more tomatoes than you can eat fresh, you have options:

• Make sauce and freeze or can it for later

• For overripe or bruised tomatoes that aren't yet spoiled, simply trim away any soft, discolored sections and use the rest in:

  • Tomato sauce

  • Bruschetta

  • Tomato soup

  • Salsa

  • Frittata

  • Gazpacho

Nothing needs to go to waste — a slightly past-prime tomato is often perfect for cooked applications even when it's no longer ideal for slicing.

Take Charge: Quick Tips

• Choose fresh and canned. Both are an easy, tasty way to work tomatoes into your weekly meals.

• Buy local. The closer to home they're grown, the fresher and more flavorful they'll be.

• Make them last. Store on the counter; refrigerate only once fully ripe and only if you won't use them within a week.

• Preserve the extras. Turn a tomato surplus into sauce for the freezer or pantry.

• Play with variety. Match the tomato to the use — snacking, slicing, cooking, skewering, or grilling — to get the most out of each type.

Inspired by and adapted from "Tomato Time!", Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, May 2026.