Contributed by Jennifer Peachey

I love the look of fresh, bright red, ripening tomatoes adorning the kitchen windowsill. Unfortunately that look doesn't do a thing for the taste. Tomatoes, like many fruit, ripen from the inside out. Trying to force them to ripen will cause them to turn red but not actually ripen.
That's when you have a woody, tasteless tomato. A warm, dark place is best for even, sweet ripening.

The refrigerator is not an ideal place either. Temperatures below 10 C/50 F halt the ripening process. Overripe tomatoes, however, can be kept in the refrigerator, where they will last another 2-3 days. Kept at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, tomatoes will last for a week.

To hasten the ripening of green tomatoes you can wrap them or cover them with newsprint and place in a dark, warm room. They will need to be checked regularly to avoid over ripening and rotting tomatoes. A perfectly ripe tomato should be pleasant smelling and yield to the light pressure of the fingers.

So what do we do with these perfectly ripe tomatoes? Make a tomato and onion sandwich? Use them in a brushetta, on a pizza, in a salad, in gazpacho, ratatouille or risottos? Dry them, can them or puree them? The options seem endless! Here are just a couple more recipes you
might like to try…

See the following recipes:

1) Penne Arrabiata (Quick Meals category)

2) White Bean Hummus with Tomato and Basil (Dips, Spreads, and Sauces category)

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