BUT.........

dicing tomatoes is such a pain in the rectum. Anyone out there know of a gadget that can be used to cleanly dice tomatoes??

I have tried and failed with a mandolin slicer and various chopping tools.

I bought a salsa maker online after seeing them demo'ed at the Del Mar Fair. They are hand-crank slicers. I just put tomotoes, cilantro, garlic, and chiles in and turn the crank. Presto: instant chunky salsa fresca. (BTW, I don't like onions, so my family has to eat salsa w/o.)

The chopper is not precise enough to actually dice tomatoes. Before the biggest chunk is diced, the smallest chunks are riced.

The skin of a tomatoe is very smooth so the knife tends to slide across it. If the surface was a bit rough the knife would dig in and start to cut.

You can start by coring and halving the fruit. The inner flesh will cut much easier. I usually cut in a cross hatch pattern and the slice accross them, resulting in a lot of nicely diced tomatoe.

Go buy a new knife or sharpen the one you have:-)

Would you mind posting your recipe? I'll have to dig my out and post it too.

then, use a SHARP knife

My recipe is the simple one;

Diced tomatoes (usually romas)

Diced green onions

Diced white onion

Diced (finely) jalapenos, serranos, or habaneros

Diced green/red yellow peppers if I have them

Chopped cilantro

Lime juice & salt

I'll mix it up by tossing in some black beans from time to time.

Stefan

"PENNSYLTUCKY?!?!?!?!?"

(My own version of the Pace commercial...)

tomatoes

green onions

lotsa garlic

cilantro

green & red bell pepper

jalepeno peppers

a small bit of chipotle pepper

cayenne pepper

pinch of sugar

rice wine vinegar to mellow and bind the flavors

This thing might work if you partially froze tomatoes.

I gave up cutting tomatoes with my favorite chef's knife, and have been using my cheapie "ginsu" type serrated knife as mentioned above.

That was until I finally found a great diamond honing stone. It was at Walmart for about $15 and it has a course side and a fine side.

A few swipes with that and I'm able to filet farts without so much as a whiff.

Cut the tomatoes in half length wise. Turn them cut side UP, and you'll have no problems.

Sincerely,

9-fingers Joe (formely employed at Wendy's)