Cherry tomatoes are an obvious go-to ingredient for summertime meals, especially if you’ve got a prolific plant in your garden. But as Ann Taylor Pittman points out in her recipe for Warm Puttanesca Pasta Salad, these little flavor bombs are reliably delicious all year round, so they’re an excellent choice during those months of the year when full-size tomatoes are lackluster. Plus, since they’re already bite-sized, they often don’t require any chopping to be recipe-ready. And while cherry tomatoes are certainly delicious in all kinds of raw applications, cooking them is a surefire way to concentrate their flavors for a next-level dish. Throw them on the grill for a chicken Caprese salad, burst them in a pan on the stove for a ragout to top polenta, or roast them in the oven for weeknight favorites like our easy sheet pan salmon. Celebrate the versatility of sweet cherry tomatoes all year with this roundup of tasty recipes.
Grilled Chicken Caprese Salad with Basil Oil
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Shell Royster
A combo of grilled cherry tomatoes on the vine and quick-pickled yellow grape tomatoes adds double tomato flavor to this iconic main course summer salad.
Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes Melted in Garlic Butter
Food & Wine / Photo by Jen Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
Cherry tomatoes are a great shortcut to a delicious sauce for pasta, especially in the summer when they’re abundant. Naturally sweet, they don’t take long to blister and burst, and their juices create a luscious sauce when mixed with a little bit of garlicky butter and pasta water.
Raspberry, Orange, and Tomato Salad with Honey-Mirin Vinaigrette
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Almost too pretty to eat, this sophisticated salad pairs tart raspberries, juicy mandarin orange slices, both red and yellow cherry tomatoes, and peppery, crunchy radishes with a tangy mirin vinaigrette that gets an umami boost from fish sauce.
Charred Corn and Tomato Tartines with Tofu Aïoli
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
Enhanced by smoked paprika, our eggless, tofu-based aïoli has the assertive garlic flavor and creamy texture you expect from the condiment. Here, it’s generously slathered on rustic sourdough slices piled high with grilled corn, peppers, and cherry tomatoes.
Creamy Polenta with Burst Cherry Tomato–and–Red Wine Ragout
2018 F&W Best New Chef Julia Sullivan’s savory tomato ragout is a modern classic, popping with bright color and flavor. It’s made with a multi-hued mix of cherry tomatoes laced with ribbons of hearty greens. Garlic and basil punch up the delicious factor.
Sheet-Pan Salmon with Gin-Soaked Tomatoes
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
For this hands-off dinner, salmon fillets are baked slowly for meltingly tender results. Tender roasted cherry tomatoes and shallots mingle beautifully with the botanical notes of gin and briny capers.
Green Bean, Butter Bean, and Tomato Salad
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
This fun play on a classic summer three bean salad combines green beans and butter beans with cherry tomatoes and olives, simply dressed in rice vinegar and olive oil and served over a layer of flavor-packed romesco sauce.
Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Cherry Tomatoes
Tender cherry tomatoes provide pops of sweetness when baked with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, lemon slices, and garlic.
Spicy Sausage Pasta with Tomatoes and Squash
Here, tender orecchiette cooks with cherry tomatoes, spicy sausage, harissa, and dry white wine until a creamy sauce forms and coats the pasta.
Warm Puttanesca Pasta Salad
Ann Taylor Pittman’s vibrant pasta salad includes crispy prosciutto, fragrant herbs, anchovies, and punches of garlic, but cherry tomatoes are the real star of the dish. She seasons them, then uses their juices to coat just-cooked casarecce before tossing it with the remaining ingredients.
Ouzo Snapper with Fennel and Tomatoes
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Mild whole snapper is rubbed with licorice-scented ouzo and roasted over a bed of cherry tomatoes, fennel, and sweet onions in this simple yet satisfying recipe. The produce also gets a splash of ouzo before roasting, for a sweet and slightly acidic complement to the flaky fish.
Burst Cherry Tomatoes and Pancetta
This dish from 2018 F&W Best New Chef Michael Gallina is a simple sauté with sweet acidity from tomatoes, savoriness from pancetta, and aromatics from garlic and onion. It’s a divine topping for ricotta toast and just as delicious tossed with pasta.
Buffalo Mozzarella with Neat and Messy Roasted Tomatoes
Cookbook author Rachel Roddy serves tomatoes roasted two ways, first at 300°F and then at 350°F, for a range of delicious tomato flavor as well as a beautiful presentation paired with rich buffalo mozzarella.
Za’atar Baked Eggs
In this go-to breakfast and brunch dish from Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, eggs are baked in a cherry tomato–pepper mix seasoned with the Mediterranean spice blend za’atar, then served with a cucumber yogurt sauce.
Fregola with Charred Onions and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Chef Jeff Banker roasts cherry tomatoes in the oven to intensify their sweetness in this summer salad with chewy, bead-shaped fregola pasta.
Tomato Pie Bars
Josh Miller’s take on tomato pie starts with crushed saltine crackers and Parmesan cheese to give these bars a crispy crust. The rich, savory filling is enhanced with mildly spicy curry powder and chipotle chile. A topping of juicy tomato slices brings the finished bars into perfect balance.
Halibut in Parchment with Corn and Tomatoes
Top Chef winner and host Kristen Kish keeps it simple by roasting halibut, corn, tomatoes, and green beans all in a single packet, allowing the flavors to merge into one fresh, light, and delicious summer meal.
Squid with Burst Cherry Tomatoes
Chef Tom Colicchio cooks cherry tomatoes low and slow for extravagant juiciness and amped-up flavor.
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