Sure you can go to any grocery store, warehouse store, or even convenient store and pick up a jar of salsa, marinara, or pasta sauce, and take it home and you are ready to make a great dinner or snack, but there is something to be said about making these items from scratch. If you are lucky enough to have the land to grow a garden, so much the better. The one question most people have is, how do I get my tomatoes prepped and ready, so I can use them to make these items? Well I'm going to explain that right now.
It really isn't as hard as you might imagine. You only need a few simple items and a little time and patience. Basically you will need some beautiful ripe tomatoes, a good size pot of water, a sharp paring knife, a large straining cooking spoon, a cutting board, a large bowl, some ice (enough to fill the large bowl), some more water to put in the bowl, and of course, let's not forget the stove to put the pot of water on.
The very first thing you will need to do is put enough water in your pot so that when you add your tomatoes, they will be totally submerged, this can be done by adding your tomatoes first and then filling with water, and removing the tomatoes after they are completely covered. Then take the pot with water in it and place it on the stove and turn it on high.
While you are waiting for the water to boil, clean and remove any stems from your tomatoes and place them on your cutting board. You will want to remove the core from one side, this is the side that the tomato was attached to the vine from. This is done by cutting around the outer edge, inward at an angle, and going all the way around until the core pops out. You will only need to cut in about 1 inch deep. Then you flip the tomato over 180 degrees, and you will notice a very tiny core like dot. Instead of coring this, you are going to make two slices in this in the form of an X, between one half inch and one inch wide, depending on how big your tomatoes are. Basically, you want the center of your X to be in the center of that core button. This does not have to be deep, just enough to cut through the skin. Repeat these steps for all of the remain tomatoes.
By now, your pot of water should be boiling, so take your large spoon and one by one, carefully place your tomatoes in the boiling water. Don't plop them in, as you may splash boiling hot water on yourself, which isn't a good thing. Once they are all in the pot, take and fill your large bowl with ice and add water so the ice is covered.
In a matter of a few minutes, your tomatoes will start to show sings of the skin cracking and or pealing from the top or bottom. When you see this happening, it is time to remove them from the pot and add them to the bowl of ice water. Let them soak for a few minutes in the ice water, this will prevent them from cooking, and also make the skin come of much easier. After a few minutes, when they are cooled down, you can pull them out one by one and remove the skin, it should peal right off.
Next, place them back on your cutting board, and slice them in half. Make sure you do this around the belly in the center, and not from core to base. This is very important, because if you do it the wrong way, it wall make it very difficult to remove the seeds. If you do it the right way, all you have to do is hold the tomato half in your and and give it a good squeeze and the seeds should come right out. Sometimes I'll use my paring knife to loosen them up a bit before I squeeze, but you do it whatever way works best for you.
At this point, they are prepped and ready for you to make what ever dish you wish.
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