These 40 ways to use up a glut of tomatoes are our insider secrets and most requested recipes each year come late summer. Think of it as an inspiration board. With recipes.
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Fresh Tomato Tart
This fresh tomato tart is laden with slices of summer tomato—preferably heirloom—on an herbed crust topped with creamy goat cheese and finished with a pesto vinaigrette. Elegant and impressive yet (shhhhh!) really quite easy.
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With tomatoes in season, this pasta with fresh tomatoes is the epitome of good and simple. Eat it al fresco—it's like taking an Italian vacation.
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FAQs about using up extra tomatoes
How can I tell if my tomatoes are perfectly ripe?
Whether you’ve got a garden full of tomatoes, or you’re carefully selecting the best ones at the market, there are a few things to consider. Perfectly ripe tomatoes are brightly colored, blemish-free, and fragrant when sniffed. They’re firm and heavy for their size, but should yield slightly when gently squeezed. For more details, read the full article How to Tell if a Tomato is Perfectly Ripe.
How should tomatoes be stored?
Tomatoes should be stored at room temperature on the counter in an open container lined with paper towels. Keep them out of direct sunlight. Never store whole tomatoes in the refrigerator.
If your tomatoes are fully ripe, store them stem side down, and use within a day or two.
If your tomatoes are not fully ripe yet, store them in a single layer in the container until they are ripe, up to a week.
What are the best uses for various types of tomatoes?
If you’ve got juicy, ripe, fresh tomatoes, you can’t really go wrong, but some varieties are better suited to particular recipes.
Roma or plum tomatoes are meaty, with lower water and seed content, so they are better suited to making tomato paste and sauces.
Cherry and grape tomatoes are the most versatile, stand up well to cooking, and can be used in almost any recipe. Their smaller size makes them quicker to roast or dry. They also make a great portable snack.
Beefsteak tomatoes are juicy, with plenty of flesh, making them ideal for salsa. Their excellent flavor makes them terrific for slicing atop burgers (or even standing in for the burger patty).
Heirloom tomatoes are incredibly flavorful, and often visually stunning, so save these beauties for topping fresh tomato tarts and tomato sandwiches.
Using a variety of tomatoes in this cold tomato soup is what we usually do but if you have only one kind on hand, go for it. The feta and olives add the extra salt needed to bring out the pure tomato flavor.
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This freezer tomato sauce is a simple homemade spaghetti sauce made with that glut of garden tomatoes. Stash it in the freezer now and thank yourself later.
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You’re probably not thinking garlic, basil, and cheese with your watermelon, but trust us on this one. It's the perfect bruschetta for summer.
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These roasted cherry tomatoes with herbs are made by baking cherry tomatoes with olive oil and Italian seasoning. An easy recipe that’s wonderful with pasta, sandwiches, pizza, or simply spooned up straight from the baking sheet.
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This tomato and feta salad is made with artfully arranged sliced tomatoes, basil, olives, arugula, and pine nuts punctuated with creamy roasted feta. Guaranteed to become a summer standby.
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This sweet and sticky no-pectin tomato jam is made with caramelized onions, toasted spices, and slowly simmered Roma tomatoes. You'll be putting it on everything.
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Guests swoon at the sight and sigh with delight at the taste of this simple tomato, ricotta, and Manchego pie filling in a flaky cream cheese crust.
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Homemade tomato paste is surprisingly easy to make at home and a great way to use up lots of tomatoes. All you need are tomatoes, salt, olive oil, a food mill, and a flair for classic Italian goodness.
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After browning some sausage, the tortellini go directly into the same pan with some water. Once the pasta is tender, cherry tomatoes join the party and soften into a makeshift sauce. A shower of fresh basil makes this pantry meal feel a little fresher and more aromatic.
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This salmon with blistered cherry tomatoes is quick, easy to make, and healthy. In other words, perfect weeknight fare.
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This fire roasted salsa is made with charred tomatoes and onions and, just for complexity and to ensure the salsa is sufficiently smoky, a smidgen of chipotle in adobo. Great for dunking, dipping, and dabbling.
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Tomatoes Provencal are stuffed tomatoes, heirloom or otherwise, made with bread crumbs, cheese, herbs, and olive oil. So simple. So spectacular.
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This cherry tomato tart calls for a homemade herbed crust, heavy cream, goat cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and tons of tomatoes.
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This summer tomato pasta with basil is made with a handful of pantry staples, including fresh tomatoes, spaghetti or bucatini, and plenty of grated Parmesan. A fast, easy, no-fuss summer meal that's on the table in just 30 minutes.
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For this pizza on the grill, I’ve presented a “Margarita” that uses fresh mozzarella, Pecorino or Parmesan, fresh tomato sauce, basil, and scallions (an Al Forno signature move).
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Who can resist fried green tomatoes–slices of succulent unripe tomatoes dipped in egg and dredged in cornmeal and then fried to a crisp golden brown? Add some Creole remoulade and, well, no one can resist!
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This cherry tomato confit is sweet and easy and a lovely way of preserving all those Sun Golds you planted earlier this summer. Here’s how to make it.
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This spicy tomato crumble is a flavorful side dish that pairs beautifully with fish, or can be mounded atop pasta.
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This roasted tomato tart with Cheddar and basil is brimming with flavorful slow-roasted tomatoes that bear an intensely concentrated essence and melds it all with an easy free-form pastry crust.
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This Greek tomato and green bean salad is simply heirloom tomatoes, green beans, yellow wax beans, red onion, feta, and herbs. Perfect for summer.
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This homemade ketchup recipe, made with tomatoes, vinegar, and sugar, is made without high-fructose corn syrup. And with a whole lot more complexity and finesse than the store-bought stuff.
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This oven-roasted tomato recipe, an Italian method of slow roasting, creates a sticky, sweet tomato for use in a multitude of ways. It's a perfect way to make use of extra tomatoes.
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This Moroccan salad is a tart, salty, and tangy side dish that's full of incredibly vibrant tastes. Serve as a side to spicy chicken tagine with rice.
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Tomato and peach panzanella may sound unlikely but it’s gonna knock your socks off. Or, if you’re not wearing socks this time of year, then it’ll knock your flip-flops off. Guaranteed.
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This tomato soup is spiced with saffron, which has enough flavor to stand up to the Gruyère in the croutons. And the whole thing is awfully easy to put together, beating out anything from a can, anyday.
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Few soups are simpler than this summer classic, but here I make it slightly more complicated by giving the vegetables a quick turn over a smoky fire to lightly flavor them, not cook them.
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Bruschetta with tomato is a quick and easy (not to mention super tasty) way to use up summer's glut of tomatoes. A drizzle of olive oil, toasted rustic bread, and some garlic finish it off.
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Baked fish with tomatoes and olives is sorta Italian, sorta Mediterranean, and completely easy and impressive. Works wonderfully on crazy weeknights as well as dinner parties.
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These pickled green tomatoes have loads of flavor from the sweet and salty brine and the freshness of green tomatoes. You'll wish that you made more, I promise.
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This blueberry and tomato salad is a simple summer side made with ripe tomatoes, fresh blueberries, goat cheese, and drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette.
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Tomato sorbet can be made with any tomatoes that you desire, or have on hand. This stunning dessert adds lemon, basil, and sugar to make a fresh and bright dish.
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This red sauce, or sugo di pomodoro, is an easy, authentic Italian tomato sauce made with tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, and basil. Ideal for busy weeknights as well as easy entertaining.
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For this tomato pie, ripe tomatoes, white Cheddar, and mayonnaise are all stuffed inside a buttery, flaky pie crust. Need I say more?
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This Caprese salad by Giada de Laurentiis is pretty traditional—why mess with something that works? Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and a slightly updated dressing just screams summer.
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This tomato watermelon feta salad combines a couple of your summer musts in a single and simple format that’s portable enough for lunch on the go or picnics when made in a jar or can simply be tossed together in a bowl and reveled in it at home.
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Rigatoni with sweet tomatoes, eggplant, and mozzarella is a deceptively easy pasta dinner that tastes much more difficult. Cheesy and filled with silky eggplant, tomatoes, and cream, it also bakes into a magnificent casserole.
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HUNGRY FOR MORE?
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Thank you, great, informative article. I grew up in the pizza capital of the world, Waterbury, Conn. In school at Notre Dame Academy, the nuns would sometimes buy local pizza for us at lunch. Bacco’s pizza with tomato sauce. No cheese, no nothing. It was fabulous.
That does sound fabulous, Mary. It just goes to show when you have good quality ingredients, often simple and unadorned is the best.