The cherry tomato cutting trick
I resisted, but I've finally been converted to the better way to cut cherry tomatoes.
You've probably seen this trick before. You take two plastic lids, put a bunch of cherry tomatoes between them, then use a knife to cut them all in half at once.
I didn't wanna! When I'm cutting cherry tomatoes, I carefully assess each one, figure out where I want to align my cuts, and how many cuts each one needs to get evenly sized little pieces. Cherry tomatoes aren't all the same size! I already have an elaborate cherry tomato cutting method that I have honed over many years of practice and analysis, thank you very much!
The Anal Retentive Chef, Saturday Night Live, 1989. You'll be missed forever, Phil Hartman.
Related: when the Anal Retentive Chef sketch first happened on Saturday Night Live, I saw myself in that mirror. "Dunno, seems like pretty normal behavior to me." Until he busted out the cleaning supplies. I mean, that's well off the rails.
A few weeks ago I was in a hurry, and for once I didn't care about getting the tomatoes cut into even little pieces, so I busted out a couple of lids and tried it out.
And I must begrudgingly admit, it's time for me to stop being so silly and fussy about how I cut cherry tomatoes. This is so much better.
You need two plastic lids; I use lids I've saved from restaurant delivery containers. For the knife, use something long and serrated; I use a bread knife. I first tried this with my normal tomato knife, but it works better with this long friend.
Put a lid down with the lipped edge sticking up. Pile your tomatoes in. They don't need to be packed in tight, I've done it half full and it still works fine. You'll notice these tomatoes aren't all the same size.1 It'll be okay. (Look at me not being fussy! My growth!)
Take the second lid and put it on top, with its lipped edge pointing down, and hold it in place. Lock those tomatoes in there! Now cut in the gap between the two lids, using a sawing motion with your serrated knife. Pop pop pop! You're done in about 3 seconds.
Action-cam!
You are now the proud owner of sliced tomatoes! These ones have been tossed with salt, olive oil, garlic, and oregano, because they're about to get roasted.
For clean up, all you need to do is give the two lids and the knife a quick rinse. Tada!
That took no time at all, and it turns out that individually inspecting each tomato to create its own detailed dissection plan is not strictly necessary to enjoy life. Occasionally I'll still do it, because I like the caring ritual of it, but I'm loving this new devil-may-care approach to slicing cherry tomatoes.
