The Easy Tip To Make Your Out-Of-Season Tomatoes Sing

Perhaps the trickiest part of shopping for produce is figuring out when certain things are in season. This could mean a certain fruit or vegetable is more accessible during a certain part of the year (think pumpkins or squash during autumn) or it might refer to a particular piece of produce being fresher and more flavorful during a select period of time. Few fruits or vegetables fluctuate more with the seasons than tomatoes.

The window for fresh, in-season tomatoes at your local grocer goes from early-mid spring to late fall, meaning that the succulent veggie's primetime is usually during the summer. Now, you're perfectly capable of heading down to your grocery store and grabbing a bag of tomatoes right now. But chances are, you're getting an out-of-season crop. Out-of-season tomatoes can be eaten, sure, but they're much more bland and watery in texture than the tomatoes available at the height of summer. The only way to get the best tomatoes is to wait for the warmest months of the year.

But this doesn't mean you have to settle for flavorless tomatoes during the cooler months. There's one very simple trick that will not only help to add some extra flavor to your tomatoes – it'll make them much better ingredients in a variety of dishes.

Before we talk about tomatoes, we need to explain confit. Confit refers to food — whether it's meat, fruits, or vegetables — which are cooked in fat, oil, or syrup, thus preserving them. Unlike deep-frying, the foods in question are cooked low and slow, then canned or packed in the liquid. This results in succulent and long-lasting preserves, ranging from duck confit to garlic scape confit.

How can you prepare your out-of-season tomatoes with this method? One very simple way to confit your tomatoes begins by generously coating them in olive oil and seasoning them with salt and pepper. Then, you put the tomatoes in a 200-degree oven for anywhere between one hour and one hour and 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are completely roasted. Not only will they lose their watery flavor, they'll be ready to store in oil, for use in a myriad of dishes.

What's more, you're free to experiment with this method. You could, for example, add a variety of herbs and spices such as thyme and red pepper flakes to the olive oil.  The key is to draw out excess moisture, which concentrates flavor.

While the idea of making confit tomatoes is appealing, you may want to avoid using all that excess oil and salt. If you're looking for an oil-free way to perk up your tomatoes, all you need is a pot and some water.

Simply fill a large soup pot with water and heat it over the stove until the water is around or above 123 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, using a large spoon or tongs, quickly dunk your tomatoes into the water and allow them to boil for five minutes.  The heat of the water encourages the release of natural aromas and flavor compounds, which would otherwise be restricted by cold temperatures.

Not only is a hot water bath a good way to perk up your tomatoes, it's also a good way to peel them. By dunking your tomatoes in hot water for 30 seconds, then quickly putting them into a bowl of ice water, you'll find that it's far easier to remove the skin off even the toughest tomatoes. This is an especially good method if you're using out-of-season tomatoes in a recipe and need to peel them in a hurry.