Tomatoes: Peeling, seeding and dicing

Called "Concasse" in classical cooking, peeled, seeded, and diced tomatoes are used for 1,001 purposes in the kitchen. Here's the best way to get them ready.

Make an "X" on the bottom end of the tomato, cutting just slightly through the skin.

Dip the tomato in boiling water for approximately 30 seconds (a tomato that is less ripe may take a little longer). Immediately after, plunge the tomato into an ice water bath.

Slip off the skin; it should be easy to remove. Cut the peeled tomato into quarters. Using a slicing motion, cut out the inside of the tomato. Remove any stray seeds. Slice the seeded quarters into strips.

Cut the strips into the desired sized dice. It doesn't matter if your dice are large or small as long as the pieces are uniformly sized.