The market · Vegetables · The Americas, Southern Europe, West Africa

Plum tomatoes

Long, meaty tomatoes with few seeds — made for sauces.

sweet · tangy
Plum tomatoes

What to do with it

Kenji Hara's Sourdough, 100% ryePlum tomato would give it depthIbu Sari's Beef rendangPlum tomato would cut through its richnessRosa Ibarra's Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineapplePlum tomato would give it depthMira Kowalski's Pierogi ruskiePlum tomato would give it depth
Classics built on it
NigerianJollof riceRice cooked in a fried-down base of tomato, pepper and scotch bonnet, until each grain is red and separate.1 version here

Kinds

Roma
The everyday plum tomato.
San Marzano
Italian, sweet, with its own protected name.
Tinned
Often better than fresh out of season.

Goes with

basilolive oilgarlicred pepper

Cooked with, here

chicken stockgroundnut oillong grain riceonionred pepperscotch bonnet

How much, here

Jollof, party style6 plum tomatoesTolu Adeyemi · 14% of the dish

Knowing it

Where to buy
Greengrocers and markets in season; tinned otherwise.

Kitchens that keep it in

Punjab — northern India and eastern PakistanPunjabiWheat, dairy and the tandoor: rich, generous cooking from the land of five rivers, and the source of much of what the world calls Indian food.10 classicsNigeria, West AfricaNigerianBig flavours from a big country: tomato and pepper bases, smoke, groundnut and the scotch bonnet — and party food at a scale all of its own.11 classics · 2 cooked hereMexicoMexicanMaize, chillies and fire: a cooking thousands of years deep, built on nixtamalised corn, a whole spectrum of dried chillies, and salsas at every meal.11 classics

More vegetables, in season with it

VegetablesAuberginessmoky when charred, creamy14 classicsVegetablesBitter melonsbitter, green, grassybitter1 classicVegetablesBroad beansnutty, greenNot cooked here yetat its peakVegetablesButternut squashsweet, nutty2 classics