34 Recipes Starring Fresh, Ripe Summer Tomatoes

What to make with the best of your farmers market tomato-haul this season.

It's not an exaggeration to say that for much of the year, fresh tomatoes aren't even worth buying. Out of season, almost all fresh tomatoes are bland, mealy, and watery—which is why we recommend using canned tomatoes for our winter soups and stews. But come summer, it's a completely different story: You can find beautiful ripe, flavorful tomatoes at farmers markets everywhere you go. To make the most of this magical time of year, try a few simple recipes that really highlight the tangy-sweet flavor of a great tomato. Here are 34 to get you started—including a classic Caprese salad (no balsamic, please), a couple of gazpachos, and the classic BLT. Want to be fully prepared for this year's tomato season? Check out our guides to shopping for, storing, and peeling tomatoes first.

Caprese Salad

One of the absolute best showcases for ripe summer tomatoes is a Caprese salad. All you need are the juiciest, sweetest tomatoes you can find; the best fresh mozzarella; fragrant fresh basil leaves; top-shelf olive oil (and plenty of it!); plus a little coarse salt and a few grinds of black pepper. No balsamic, no arugula—just the pristine flavors of high-quality ingredients at the peak of their season.

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Tomato, Apricot, and Feta Salad With Mint

This easy, refreshing dish offers a fruity twist on the classic Caprese, adding juicy apricots and subbing briny feta for mozzarella and mint for basil. As with a Caprese, if you have the option, you'll get better results by using a variety of tomatoes for contrasting textures and flavors.

List Link: Tomato, Apricot, and Feta Salad With Mint

Classic Panzanella Salad (Tuscan-Style Tomato and Bread Salad)

Unlike Caprese, the summery Tuscan bread salad panzanella is a dish that we love to experiment with. But here, we're playing it straight, using just tomatoes, basil, bread, and a simple vinaigrette. Although you'll often find instructions to use stale bread for panzanella, we find that the best texture comes from lightly toasted fresh bread. Salt the tomatoes to concentrate their flavor, then use the drained liquid to bulk up the vinaigrette.

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The Fully Loaded Iceberg Wedge Salad

A staple of steakhouses and other retro dining establishments, the iceberg wedge salad walks a fine line between light/cooling and hearty/satisfying. Here, tomatoes are a supporting player, joining onion, bacon, bread crumbs, and a blue cheese dressing over a big wedge of lettuce. We salt the tomatoes to draw out some of their moisture, and quick-pickle the onions to soften their raw bite.

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Andalusian Gazpacho

Let's get this straight: Gazpacho is not a cold tomato soup—it's an uncooked bread soup that's often made with tomatoes. For our very best tomato gazpacho, we cryo-blanch ripe tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and bell pepper, popping them in the freezer for 30 minutes to extract as much moisture as possible. Then we blend all that produce with bread and lots of good olive oil, for a soup that's silky-smooth, bright red-orange, and bursting with refreshing vegetal flavor.

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Easy Gazpacho

If you don't have the time for our Andalusian gazpacho recipe, this one will get you results that are almost as good in significantly less time. We skip the freezer, but salt the tomatoes and vegetables and let them sit for half an hour before blending. You won't get quite as much flavor extraction, but you'll still want to down the whole batch in one sitting.

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The Best Fresh Tomato Sauce

Honestly, you can make a pretty great tomato sauce with canned tomatoes—so, if you're going to the trouble of using your fresh tomatoes for the task, you should really make it taste fresh. At the same time, we love the rich depth of a slow-cooked sauce. We get the best of both worlds in this recipe by combining three different components: a rich homemade tomato paste, a classic cooked tomato sauce, and a just-barely-cooked tomato purée.

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Raw Tomato Coulis

A coulis is basically a bare-bones sauce—a thick purée of tomatoes that can be spread on bread and drizzled with olive oil for a snack, or combined with olive oil and basil for a pasta sauce. Making ours is a simple process of blanching ripe tomatoes, removing the skins and seeds, salting the tomatoes, and blending them up. For a finer texture, pass the coulis through a fine-mesh strainer.

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Pan con Tomate (Spanish-Style Grilled Bread With Tomato)

It's tough to find a simpler celebration of fresh summer tomatoes than this humble tapa, made with just five ingredients—thick slices of crusty bread drizzled with olive oil, toasted in the oven, rubbed with garlic, and topped with tomato pulp made by grating beefsteak tomatoes. Serve it with a salad for a light mid-summer dinner.

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Tomato and Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches

We think this cousin to a BLT is one of the best ways to start a summer day: sweet tomatoes, shatteringly crisp bacon, and rich mayonnaise, all cozied up on top of a toasted English muffin. This is definitely an occasion for homemade mayo if you're feeling creative—it only takes two minutes to make with an immersion blender and tastes significantly better than the store-bought stuff. Be sure to salt the tomatoes before frying the bacon so that their juices have time to soak into the muffin.

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Easy Tomato and Smoked Feta Tart

Inspired by the tomato and smoked-feta tart at Amanda Cohen's NYC restaurant Dirt Candy, this simple yet complexly flavored tart combines halved cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, mustard, and herbs atop a buttery pie crust. Our favorite technique for adding smoke to the feta ended up being the easiest: Just add a dash of liquid smoke to the feta brine, and let it infuse into the cheese.

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Fried Caprese Bombs

We have to admit that this one is no light, breezy, Mediterranean-style nibble. These are crisply deep-fried, melty-cheese-stuffed Caprese/mozzarella stick hybrids, and they're a bit crazy, but they sure are good. To make them, stuff hollowed-out small tomatoes with individual ciliegine fresh mozzarella balls, then bread and fry them. Serve with fresh basil leaves, a balsamic reduction, and the decision to just postpone elegance till tomorrow night.

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Sourdough Toasts With Tomato, Pesto, and Burrata

This recipe combines two of our favorite summery tomato dishes: the Caprese salad and pan con tomate featured above. Toasted slices of sourdough are topped with grated, strained tomatoes and broiled to concentrate their sweet flavor. To finish, the toasts are dolloped with creamy burrata and an herbacious basil-arugula pesto with almonds.

List Link: Get the recipe for Sourdough Toasts With Tomato, Pesto, and Burrata

Tomato Raisins (Oven-Dried Whole Cherry Tomatoes)

Slowly roasting cherry tomatoes with a glaze of sugar, salt, and olive oil concentrates their flavor and gives them a sticky-sweet exterior. They're ideal in both savory and sweet dishes, bringing intense tomato flavor to every bite. Think of them as the raisins of the tomato world.

List Link: Get the recipe for Tomato Raisins (Oven-Dried Whole Cherry Tomatoes)

Roasted-Tomato and Caper Spread

To make this savory spread, we roast plum tomatoes with garlic and thyme until they're jammy and broken down. Combined with salty capers and good quality olive oil, the sweet and salty spread is perfect on crusty bread, tossed into a bowl of pasta, or served with meats and vegetables.

List Link: Get the recipe for Roasted-Tomato and Caper Spread

Pesto alla Trapanese (Sicilian Pesto With Almonds and Tomatoes)

Pesto alla trapanese has many of the same components as the Ligurian basil pesto most people are familiar with—basil, nuts, garlic, olive oil, and cheese. Just swap the pine nuts for almonds and introduce juicy tomatoes for tart-sweet depth of flavor.

List Link: Get the recipe for Pesto alla Trapanese (Sicilian Pesto With Almonds and Tomatoes)

Canned Whole Tomatoes (Using a Pressure Canner or Boiling-Water Bath)

One of the best things you can do with fresh summer tomatoes is can them, and then keep eating them until the season rolls back around. The trick is getting the acidity level right, then processing them at the right temperature for the right amount of time. This recipe will guide you through the process from start to finish.

List Link: Get the recipe for Canned Whole Tomatoes (Using a Pressure Canner or Boiling-Water Bath)

Crostini With Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, Burrata, and Chive Oil

Sometimes, the trick for getting the most out of cherry tomatoes is to keep things simple. Here, we let their flavor and texture shine by just charring the little tomatoes and layering them on toast with burrata and chive oil.

List Link: Get the recipe for Crostini With Blistered Cherry Tomatoes, Burrata, and Chive Oil

Summer Nachos With Tomatoes, Corn, Chicken, and Cheese

Instead of piling these nachos with rich, heavy ingredients, we opt for the light and colorful produce that pops up during summer. You'll be surprised by just how well corn chips pair with sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, pickled radishes, tender chicken, and nacho cheese.

List Link: Get the recipe for Summer Nachos With Tomatoes, Corn, Chicken, and Cheese

Fresh Summer Tomato Bruschetta

These classic Italian tomato toasts should be made while tomatoes are at the peak of their season. Use a mix of heirloom tomatoes for a range of color and texture, and rub garlic on the toast to release its aromatic oils.

List Link: Get the recipe for Fresh Summer Tomato Bruschetta

Grilled Lemon-Garlic Chicken and Tomato Kebabs With Basil Chimichurri

If you're taking most of your cooking outside this summer, these chicken and tomato skewers are as summery as it gets. The chicken spends just a few minutes marinating in a lemon-garlic mixture before heading to the grill.

List Link: Get the recipe for Grilled Lemon-Garlic Chicken and Tomato Kebabs With Basil Chimichurri

Summer Tomato Tonnato Salad

Come summer, we like to seek out recipes that come together quickly and don’t require any cooking. This summer salad takes peak-season tomatoes and pairs them with a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce called tonnato. The emulsion combines briny and savory ingredients like oil-packed tuna, anchovy, dijon mustard, and capers. If you’re seeking a bit more of a kick, you can try our spicy version, which includes Turkish hot pepper paste.

List Link: Get the recipe for Summer Tomato Tonnato Salad

Roman Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes (Pomodori al Riso)

Here, we enjoy tomatoes just as the Romans do by stuffing them with rice cooked risotto-style. Both tomato paste and pulp are mixed with the rice, infusing it with sweet and savory tomato flavor. We also add roast potatoes to the dish, which bring substance and help keep the tomatoes upright in the baking dish while they roast in the oven.

List Link: Get the recipe for Roman Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes (Pomodori al Riso)

Sheet-Pan Salmon With Tomato-Eggplant Compote

The tomato-eggplant compote in this salmon dinner requires nothing more than a sheet-pan and a little bit of your time, so long as you pay attention to a few key details. You’ll need to gradually add the ingredients and place them properly on the baking sheet to prevent burning. If any areas start to show signs of scorching, you can lower the heat of that area by adding some water. The thoughtfulness that goes into the prep work leads to an easy salmon dinner with a silky, delicious compote.

List Link: Get the recipe for Sheet-Pan Salmon With Tomato-Eggplant Compote

Sicilian-Style Spaghetti Alla Carrettiera (Fresh Tomato and Garlic Sauce)

It’s no secret that we will gladly eat any kind of pasta at any time of day, but we might just love it best when it comes together easily and is loaded with fresh flavors. Here, peeled and roughly puréed tomatoes are mixed with raw minced garlic, chopped basil, and red pepper flakes before combining with cooked spaghetti and some toasted breadcrumbs. Both the breadcrumbs and some starchy pasta water help thicken and emulsify the sauce, creating a comforting meal that’s full of bright flavors.

List Link: Get the recipe for Sicilian-Style Spaghetti Alla Carrettiera (Fresh Tomato and Garlic Sauce)

Creamy Bean Dip With Roasted Tomato Puttanesca Salad

The addition of a roasted tomato puttanesca salad makes this more than just any bean dish. Cherry tomatoes are roasted with olive oil until their skin begins to wrinkle and split, and then they’re tossed with black olives, anchovies, fresh parsley, and a generous pinch of red pepper flakes. It’s a sweet and tangy way to add some pizzazz to an otherwise simple appetizer.

List Link: Get the recipe for Creamy Bean Dip With Roasted Tomato Puttanesca Salad

Salata Falahiyeh (Palestinian or Farmers Salad)

If all you have at home are tomatoes, onion, and mint, you can enjoy a very delicious salad. Cutting the vegetables into small, uniform dice creates an appealing texture and ensures a bit of everything in each bite, while using mint as the only fresh herb creates a fresh flavor without overpowering the subtleties of other ingredients.

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Classic Tomato Sandwich

A Southern tomato sandwich is all about showing off the peak-of-season summer tomatoes. You'll need little more than salt, mayonnaise, bread, and the absolute best summer tomatoes you can find.

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The Best BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich

Use the best tomatoes. Put away the fancy bread. And most importantly: Don't mess with it. There's not much more to it! We like to keep things as simple as possible with this sandwich to show off the beauty of in-season tomatoes.

List Link: The Best BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato) Sandwich

Outdoor Pizza Oven Burst Cherry Tomato, Shallot, and Herb Pizza

Here, the burst cherry tomato sauce for this pizza is cooked quickly in a skillet right in the outdoor pizza oven as it heats up for baking the pies. Meanwhile, using a dough specially formulated for high temperature outdoor pizza ovens produces perfectly baked pies with a crisp bottom and tender crust.

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Tomato Tart With Whipped Ricotta

Top ultra-flaky puff pastry with whipped ricotta and fresh tomatoes for an easy summertime snack or appetizer. Docking the puff pastry with a fork and weighing it down with another sheet pan eliminates air pockets and keeps the pastry slim and crispy. You'll want to make sure to salt and drain the tomato slices to extract excess moisture and prevent the tart from becoming watery.

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Classic Pico de Gallo

This classic Mexican condiment is made with little more than tomatoes, onions, and chiles. Salting and draining diced tomatoes improves their texture, flavor, and color. Once you add some lime juice and cilantro, all that's left is a big bag of tortilla chips to go with it!

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Fresh Tomato and Caramelized Onion Jam

Here, the bright, sweet, and tart flavor of in-season tomatoes is preserved for the fall. Using inexpensive Roma tomatoes results in an intensely flavorful jam, while sweetening the jam with caramelized onions adds another savory dimension. We also like to peel the tomatoes for a smooth, uniform texture.

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Marinated Mozzarella, Cherry Tomato, and Basil Salad

Fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil are a classic combination, but sometimes the dish can be very bland. Here, cherry-sized mozzarella balls (ciliegine) are marinated in extra virgin olive oil, fresh basil, salt and pepper, and then tossed with sweet cherry tomatoes and golden balsamic vinegar. Nothing bland about that!

List Link: Marinated Mozzarella, Cherry Tomato, and Basil Salad