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 tomato-
like 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