Tomato Season: What We Buy, What We Skip

Tomato season is short and the grocery aisle is loud. Here is our annual guide to sorting the sublime from the merely red.

Our most-loved tomato is a Sicilian Datterino, sold in small hands at the Mercato Centrale in Florence. If you can find them, buy three pounds and freeze half for winter sauce.

For raw use, a heirloom like Brandywine or Cherokee Purple is unbeatable. Large slicers are imperfect and fleshy, perfect for caprese or a simple tomato tartine with salt and olive oil.

Skip any tomato packed in shrink wrap. The greenhouse vine tomatoes sold in four-packs are engineered to ship, not to eat. If a tomato costs less than a dollar a pound, it will not taste of summer.