Basic Technique 9

Score tomatoes and blanche in boiling water for 10 seconds or until the skin begins to peel away. Refresh in iced water and remove the skin. Cut each tomato into quarters and remove the seeds. Trim the quarters to give even, rectangular pieces of tomato according to the required size. Slice the tomato into even width strips lengthways and cut across at the same width to make tomato concassée. If using the tomato concassée in a cold dish, lightly season with salt, freshly ground pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. If adding the tomato concassée to a hot sauce, do so at the last minute to prevent the tomato from becoming over-cooked, mushy and discolouring the sauce.