Tomato anatomy The fruit wall is especially rich in sugars, amino acids, and aroma molecules, the jelly in sugarbalancing acids Fresh tomatoes readily cook down to a smooth puree, but many canned tomatoes don’t Canners frequently add calcium salts to firm the cell walls and keep the pieces intact, and this can interfere with their disintegration during cooking If you want to make a finetextured dish from canned tomatoes, check the labels and buy a brand that doesn’t list calcium among its ingredients Storage Tomatoes came originally from a warm climate, and should be stored at room temperature Their fresh flavor readily suffers from refrigeration Tomatoes at the maturegreen stage are especially sensitive to chilling at temperatures below about 55ºF/13ºC, and suffer damage to their membranes that results in minimal flavor development, blotchy coloration, and a soft, mealy texture when they’re brought back to room temperature Fully ripe tomatoes are less sensitive, but lose flavor due to the loss of flavor-producing enzyme activity Some of this activity can come back, so refrigerated tomatoes should be allowed to recover at room temperature for a day or two before eating The “tree tomato” is the vaguely tomatolike fruit of a woody plant in the nightshade family It comes in red and yellow types and has a tough peel and bland flavor Tomatillos Tomatillos are the fruits of Physalis ixocarpa, a tomato relative that in fact was cultivated before the tomato in Mexico and Guatemala, to whose cool highlands it is better adapted The tomatillo fruit is smaller than a standard tomato but similar in structure, and is borne on the plant enclosed in a papery husk Its skin is thick and tough, sticky with a water-soluble secretion (the plant’s species name, ixocarpa, means ... day or two before eating The “tree tomato” is the vaguely tomatolike fruit of a woody plant in the nightshade family It comes in red and yellow types and has a tough peel and bland flavor Tomatillos Tomatillos are the. .. smaller than a standard tomato but similar in structure, and is borne on the plant enclosed in a papery husk Its skin is thick and tough, sticky with a water-soluble secretion (the plant’s species... Tomatillos are the fruits of Physalis ixocarpa, a tomato relative that in fact was cultivated before the tomato in Mexico and Guatemala, to whose cool highlands it is better adapted The tomatillo fruit