A cut almost entirely reserved for a vegetable that never fails in the fridge at home in this period … the tomato.
Tomato can be accompanied with any ingredient: vegetables, cereals, spices, fish, meat, cheese. Almost always after having washed it, we slice it and season it to make a salad or cook it to season pasta, but using the concassé cut it can be the protagonist in every dish, with its acidity balance every recipe with fat or oily tendency.
What is the concassé?
In French the term concassé means: finely cut. It is a culinary technique for vegetables (in particular tomato) which consists in quickly blanching the chosen vegetable in boiling water. For the tomato it is also expected the peeling and the elimination of the seeds, therefore the short passage in boiling water happens after having engraved an X on the bottom with a knife, to then be able to peel it, eliminating in this way the peel easily and then reduce to a diced 5 mm per side. Remember that the skins and seeds should not be thrown away, they reserve great surprises in the kitchen. In a previous post of mine I shared the creative ideas of some chefs on the recovery of all parts of fruit and vegetables: here find those on the skins and here those on seeds.
Which tomatoes can be cut into a concassé?
The most suitable for its shape and its fleshiness is the round copper (3), which is a true quick-change is used raw, but also cooked, in sauces and stuffing. If you don’t know it, I’ll introduce you…
You can also use other tomatoes, which you find in the image, to make concassé even if their shape makes the skinning operation a little more complicated:
- the “cuore di bue” (7) fleshy, compact sweet with few seeds. It is cut well into slices and is perfect for “caprese” and is delicious even if only seasoned with a pinch of salt
- the “costoluto” (2) fleshy, herbaceous and slightly acidulous thanks to its crunchy flesh and not too thick peel it is excellent raw, but it is also perfect for sauces, or stuffed and gratinated
- the “camone” (1) fresh and mineral taste
The smallest tomatoes I do not recommend using them for this cut, the waste would be really excessive, but don’t miss the opportunity to taste them:
- the cherry (9) sweet but with a sour note/li>
- the “pendolino” (4) meaty and sweet
- the “datterino” (5) sugary and aromatic excellent raw in salad
- “Nerino” (6) and yellow (8) sweet tomatoes, give color to each preparation
How to prepare tomato concassé?
Tomatoes are washed by removing the petiole (which fortunately is the only waste) with a small knife.
Peel the tomato by making a cross incision in the bottom of the tomato, in the area opposite the stalk.
To facilitate peeling, the tomatoes are boiled in boiling water for a few seconds. You will notice that the skin around the incision is raised and you will understand that it is time to drain the tomatoes, using a slotted spoon, and immediately immerse them in ice water. This will create a thermal shock that will allow the peel of the tomato to be removed very quickly. The few moments of cooking the tomato will still keep it hard, making cutting easier.
The tomatoes are halved by cutting them horizontally. Put a small bowl on it and with a spoon remove the seeds and the water of vegetation that you will use in another way.
After removing the seeds the tomatoes are ready for cutting, cut them into quarters, then into strips and finally into cubes of half a centimeter on each side.
Have fun adding tomato concassé to your recipes, creating contrasts of color, flavor and consistency.
clibi 