Most good cookbooks tell you not to refrigerate your tomatoes. It is true that in cold temperatures tomatoes, like all foods, lose much of their flavor. Wholesale produce distributors and supermarkets never refrigerate tomatoes either.

They keep them in a cool room at about 55°F (13°C) once they reach the red but firm stage. And you never see them in the chilled vegetable bins at the produce department.

However, lately food scientists disputed the no-refrigeration rule. As aconsequence, I tested two identical-looking, fresh, candy-red vine-ripened tomatoes. One shivered a full day in the refrigerator and the second one rested patiantly on the cool kitchen counter.

At the end of the experiment I allowed the chilled tomato to come back to room temperature and cut both tomatoes for a taste test. I couldn’t detect any difference in flavor or texture. The no-refrigeration rule for tomatoes appears to be an old myth. I urge you to try your own tomato experiment.

TASTINGS Tomato equivalents

¨ 1 medium tomato is ½ cup and equals 1 tablespoon tomato paste

¨ To get tomato sauce from paste, dilute 1 part paste with 2 parts water

¨ Tomato purée is halfway between sauce and paste in concentration

¨ 2 medium tomatoes is ½ pound (225 g) or 1 cup chopped

¨ 1 pound (450 g) tomato yields 1½ cups drained pulp

¨ A large tomato is 7-8 ounces (200-225 g), a medium tomato 4-5 ounces (110-

140 g), a small tomato 3 ounces (85 g)

If you buy tomatoes that are still pink rather than red, ripen them in a warm place for a few days but not in direct sunlight (as some cookbooks suggest). Direct sun cooks or spoils them before they ripen.

To speed ripening, put the tomatoes in a paper bag that traps and concentrates the natural ethylene gas from the tomato. The paper bag lets the accumulated moisture escape that hastens spoiling. Banana is a generous ethylene gas generator. If you have one, put in the bag with the tomato.

When cooking tomato-rich dishes, avoid aluminum and cast-iron pots if the cooking process is longer than 20 or 30 minutes. Not only the acid in the tomatoes leach out too much of the metal, giving the dish an off-flavor, but tomatoes discolor by these metal pots, eventually turning dingy brown.