A Step-By-Step Guide to Slicing a Vine-Ripened Tomato

Cut a tomato wrong, and you could end up with a red blob where a beautiful fruit once was. Cut it right, and you can enjoy every drop of its juicy deliciousness in anything from salads to pasta dishes. Here’s how, with tomato-cutting tips courtesy of Rebecca Goldfarb of the Social Table.

Knife tip: We recommend using a double-edge utility knife with a serrated edge and a front flat edge for tomatoes, since it can be used for grape, cherry, and vine-ripened tomatoes.

The following steps are for vine-ripened tomatoes, but to cut a grape or cherry tomato, take it between your thumb and index finger, pinch it slightly, and use the front flat edge of the knife blade to halve it.

1. Halve the tomato from top to bottom.
2. Slice off the hard part at the top of the tomato, from where it connected to the vine.
3. Place one tomato half with its flat side down on the cutting board, and cut in even slices across it.
4. To dice the tomato, hold the slices together and cut across the tomato half perpendicularly to the cuts made in step 3.
5. Repeat step 3 and, if dicing the tomato, step 4.

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy your tomato, juicy deliciousness and all!