Technique: How to Seed a Tomato

Here's how to get the pulp and seeds out of a tomato easily when all you want is the sweet tomato flesh.

1. If you also want to skin the tomatoes (for a more smoother texture and none of those floating bits of tomato skin in your sauce or soup) do a real tomato concassé. I usually skip this step since I tend to make more rustic, home-style dishes. Score a cross-hatch into the bottom of the tomato and blanch it for 30 seconds or so in boiling water, just long enough to make the skin easier to peel but not long enough to cook the tomato. Then, you’d plunge the tomato into ice water to quickly cool it.
    
2. Core out the base of the stem.
   
3. Cut the tomato in half, cross-wise. (If you are doing plum tomatoes, cut them lengthwise.)
    
4. Squeeze the seeds and pulp out, scooping them out with your fingers to make sure you get them all.
   
5. Dice or crush them according to your recipe.