The 2-Ingredient Tomato Sorbet That's Perfect For Summer

As juicy and delicious tomatoes ripen in your garden or start to show up at the farmers' market and grocery store throughout the summer, there are some amazing approaches you can take to highlight their sweet, succulent, umami-suffused goodness. It can be as simple as a sprinkle of salt; you can add some basil and mozzarella for a nice caprese salad, or go fully liquid with a cold, invigorating tomato water that's perfect for a hot day. But have you ever heard of tomato sorbet? It's super straightforward to make, and you only need two ingredients: a whole frozen tomato and olive oil. To create a fresh tomato sorbet, you'll simply cut the stem out of the tomato to create a hole, freeze it, then scrape along the (olive oil-infused) interior with a spoon to carve out scoops of sorbet.

A tomato sorbet may seem a little unexpected, but tomatoes are one of those fruits that are always mistaken for vegetables, so it's ripe for a sorbet in that sense. And we're leaning into the savory side of things — with olive oil and some optional additions — to create a flavor profile that's more like a smooth and icy tomato salad than a sugary fruit sorbet. That said, a good, ripe tomato should display four of the five tastes that our tongues (and brains) recognize: sweet, sour, umami, and bitter. Add a dash of salt on top of your sorbet, and you'll get all five. When you take a bite of your freshly made tomato sorbet, it will easily melt in your mouth, immediately dispersing the five tastes directly to where your tongue perceives them, hitting them all simultaneously to create an intense burst of flavor that's at once cool, refreshing, rich, and robust.

You'll need to start with a large, ripe, relatively round tomato. When you cut out the stem, make a hole big enough so you can scrape around the inside with your spoon. A couple tablespoons of good olive oil added once it comes out of the freezer should be plenty. And a spoon that is relatively sharp around the edges of the bowl end will be helpful as you use it to shave off the icy layers in a circular motion. Wearing an oven mitt on your tomato hand or wrapping the tomato in a kitchen towel might be advisable because this thing is going to be cold. The scraping work does take a bit of muscle, but the sorbet will form into perfectly domed scoops on the spoon, mixing with the olive oil as you work.

Once you have your sorbet, a drizzle of thick, aged balsamic vinegar, a little salt, and a sprig of rosemary or basil will instantly upgrade it to a full-on gourmet level — both in taste and presentation. If you like more basil with your tomato, you can top it with shredded basil leaves. A squeeze of lemon will bring out more sour notes that complement the ripe sweetness. For a hint of spice, the heat from ground black pepper or red pepper flakes gives a nice contrast to the cold sorbet. And if you want a solid pungent kick, you can mix in minced garlic or top it with a fresh pesto. Whatever ingredients you choose to add on, if you don't go too far afield from the tomato and olive oil base, the flavors will blend beautifully with your tomato sorbet, creating the perfect light, bright, and luscious frozen digestif.