For Clean, Sharp Tomato Slices, Invest in a Tomato Knife: One Quick Tip

Ever struggle with ragged edges on sliced tomatoes? For anyone who loves summer's best ripe tomatoes, consider investing in a tomato knife, a short, sharp serrated knife that cuts tomatoes into clean, sharp slices. But if you're like me, a tomato knife will soon become an essential knife, so handy for its size and sharpness, not just for tomatoes but dozens of other kitchen tasks.

~ Skip Straight to the Tip ~

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts I call "One Quick Tip" ... because, well, each one includes just a single quick tip, quick to absorb, easy to adopt, memorable to use.

Do you have One Quick Tip you'd like to share? Leave a comment or send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. This time, I'd love to hear about an inexpensive kitchen tool that you find indispensable, one that really makes life easier, one that's worth keeping around even if it has just a single purpose. Old or new, big or small, I'd love to know what's useful in your own kitchen!

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Summer Tomatoes Are (Soon?) Here!

Just yesterday, we harvested the season's very first tomato from our backyard garden here in eastern Missouri, a sweet golden tomato with great color and heft. Did we do the happy dance? You bet! Wish us luck keeping the resident groundhog and box turtle away from the tomatoes, if so, in a couple of weeks, it'll be tomato heaven around here.

What Is a Tomato Knife?

A tomato knife has a short, serrated blade. It cuts through tomatoes like butter, especially compared to non-serrated knives which tend to tear tomatoes apart.

When To Use a Tomato Knife for Tomatoes

You'll use a tomato knife all summer long for cleanly slicing tomatoes for:

• Scandinavian-style open-faced sandwiches (see the photo above?!)
• Burgers
• BLTs (where I definitely recommend Homemade Mayonnaise)
• Caprese salads like Insalate Caprese
• Impressive but ever-so-simple dishes like Tomatoes & Fresh Mozzarella for a Crowd
• Cutting cherry and grape tomatoes into halves or quarters

But a Serrated Knife Isn't Just for Tomatoes!

I pull out the tomato knife again and again, many times a day. In fact, it's one of two knives I use most often. Here's how I use this short, sharp, serrated knife:

• Cutting small loaves of bread like French baguettes
• Cutting the kernels off ears of corn, you know, like How to Cut Corn Off the Cob, Keeping All Ten Fingers, Capturing Every Delicious Kernel and Every Drop of Sweet Corn "Milk"
• Slicing soft fruit like peaches, nectarines, plums and grapes
• Slicing angel food cake and other tender cakes into thin slices without mashing

THAT'S IT! Really! One Quick Tip!

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Except Just Another Quick Thing or Two

FISKARS TOMATO KNIFE My tomato knife was "swag" from Fiskars, the Finnish company many of us know for their orange-handled scissors, I've had three different sizes of Fiskars scissors since living in Finland as an exchange student for a year back in the 1970s! Fiskars has a long, long history of manufacturing quality "sharp blades" like knives dating back to the 1800s when it made the famous "puukko knives". Fiskars was a much-appreciated sponsor for the photography workshop I attended during our recent trip to the Baltic earlier this year.

FUNNY STORY What did we bring home from our trip to the Baltic? Knives, knives and more knives! First there were seven handmade Finnish "puukko" knives for gifts plus then, surprise surprise, another seven Fiskars knives. For the flight home, we wrapped all the knives carefully in a small bag with other gifts and tourist-style purchases – obviously, the bag needed to be checked, it definitely wasn't hand luggage! Is it any wonder, however, that when we opened the bag at home, the TSA left a notice that it had searched the bag? All those knives must have set off some warning bells!

DISCLOSURE For the record, this is NOT a sponsored post. As always, the opinions are my own. Fiskars gifted knives to all the workshop participants with no requirement or even expectation of coverage. I've never owned a tomato knife before, I'm so glad I do now! (My Disclosure Promise)

SIX YEARS LATER I love this Fiskars knife set so much that I searched and searched online until I found another set – from Australia, thank you very much – it's ready and waiting should I ever lose or break a knife.

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So So Ready for Summer Tomatoes

(hover with a mouse for a description; otherwise click a photo to view the recipe)

~ more tomato recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade

~ Old Liz's Old-Fashioned Cucumber & Tomato Salad ~
~ Elise's Tomato Gazpacho ~
~ Tomato Platter with Olives & Feta ~
~ Pretty Ways to Serve Summer's Best Tomatoes ~
~ Never Take a Tomato for Granted:
My Twelve Favorite Tomato Recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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