The Delicious Way To Breathe Life Into Wrinkly, Soft Cherry Tomatoes

The refrigerator is often the land of vegetables with high aspirations — the ones we buy with big hopes of using only to forget. You open the fridge one night, expecting the vibrant tomatoes you bought, only to find a container of cherry tomatoes beginning to show the tell-tale signs of wear with crinkly wrinkles across their skin. Fear not; those tomatoes still have plenty of life to offer and all it requires to resurrect them is a little blistering.

Blistering tomatoes is a kitchen secret that serves multiple uses. It repurposes those wrinkled red orbs but also concentrates the flavor as they cook, so that they are extra delicious. Once properly blistered, those tomatoes can be thrown into pastas and salads. And here's the best part — it's a technique that is easy to pick up and perfect so you'll be saving tomatoes in no time and feeling great about it.

Blistering tomatoes is the key to unlocking rich flavor quickly. While it's a way to make use of those cherry tomatoes on the brink, it shouldn't be considered second rate. They're easy to achieve at home  — all you need is a skillet, some oil, and your favorite mix of seasonings. Drizzle your pan with oil and start heating it up before adding your cherry tomatoes, but keep in mind that you don't want to crowd the pan so that tomatoes have room to move and properly blister.

Gently move the tomatoes around the pan as they sauté, making sure the whole surface is coming in contact with the heat. It won't be long before the tomatoes are blistered to perfection, so it's important to keep an eye on the stove. Give or take, it should be around five minutes when they are ready to be removed from the heat and plated.

The best feature of blistered tomatoes is the intense tomato taste they offer — each one is a little umami bomb ready to go off. They're absolutely fantastic on their own, eaten straight from the pan with a fork, but they are easy to incorporate into other dishes. Add those freshly-blistered tomatoes to a bowl of rice, grilled veggies like onions and peppers, or mix them into a tomato basil soup and you have a fast dinner with minimal effort.

Consider utilizing those blistered beauties as a component with some fresh mozzarella atop garlic bread for an elevated version of bruschetta that's better than any you've had before. Or, use them to add a burst of vibrant flavor to your favorite protein, like a grilled skirt steak or tender piece of salmon. 

And that's not all: They don't need to be eaten right away. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, blistered tomatoes can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, as long as they're covered. So, don't worry if you have extra — it just means more fantastic food is in your future.