You’ll find pomodori a mezzo on almost every Roman Shabbat table. Roman native Sara Pavoncello also likes to add them to sandwiches made with challah, schnitzel, and chicories.

This deeply savory tomato-cucumber soup is spiked with curry powder and topped with coconut milk. Chopsticks Meets Fork writer Jamie Wei serves it for Rosh Hashanah, but it’s also excellent for a summer dinner.

Ruhama Shitrit's Iraqi grandfather would make this side salad of tomatoes, thinly sliced onions and amba, a tangy, fermented mango condiment. It brightens up a holiday perfectly.

Similar to the beloved ratatouille Niçoise of Nice, France, this Moroccan dip called kamfounata is made with eggplant, tomato, and zucchini —  it’s stewy, saucy, and perfect for dipping into at the start of a shabbat Shabbat dinner, weekend brunch, or picnic.

While Simone Azoulay changes her Shabbat menu every week, this jammy cooked Moroccan salad of tomatoes and peppers is the one constant. Her son Marc, who lives in New York City, makes it in his home as well.

This light tomato salad that’s punctuated with briny capers was served over couscous during summers in Kathy Berrie’s childhood home in Morocco. It’s best when tomatoes are at their peak.

Charles Dabah’s grandmother Julie served a rotation of traditional Syrian recipes like lachmagine, a flatbread topped with meat and spices, chicken with stuffed eggplant, and these meatballs in a tangy tomato sauce. 

Bright and sweet, tomatoes and oranges are surprisingly good foils for one another. Once salted, the tomatoes will release some of their juices, so serve this salad with good bread to mop them up.

This spicy tomato salad from chef Einat Admony is inspired by one her aunt Hana made. It’s served over a bed of tahini, which helps temper the heat. Be sure to plate this just before serving. 

As Michal Shamir is quick to explain: “This is not the traditional Bulgarian kyopolou. The traditional salad is usually made with peppers, raw onions, and garlic.” Her grandmother, known in the family as Savta Sara, has her own variation on the recipe.

This fresh salsa is served alongside a vegan kibbeh recipe in Tamar Fasja Unikel’s family. “You take a piece or two and add avocados and tahini and salsa,” Tamar explains. Together, it is a taste of her family.

Amy Dell’s father, Haim, is a master of matbucha, a Moroccan dip he makes using his homemade harissa. He prepares it by the quart. Thankfully, you can freeze it for up to six months.

This classic American take on meatballs in tomato sauce from Atara Bernstein’s family is made with a touch of ketchup. 

“The joy of the baked fish dish is its sauce, which is hamedh-helu (sweet and sour), the Iraqi flavor,” writes Samantha Ellis. In this recipe, she uses lemons, pomegranate molasses, and date syrup to strike that balance of flavors.

In Ruhama Shitrit's home, these Moroccan fish patties represent wishes for a blessed new year — and the beautiful multitude of cultures in her family. You can make these a day ahead; they’re even better the next day. 

Chef Annabel Rabiyah’s project Awafi Kitchen celebrates the recipes of her father’s Iraqi heritage, like this one, through pop-ups and cooking classes. “We wanted to see our family’s food featured in the public sphere,” she says.

Sometimes known as Italian pot roast, stracotto cooks low and slow, letting the meat turn tender and the tomato sauce rich.

After leaving Izmir, Turkey for Yehud, Israel in 1949, Levana Lowenstein’s family continued to make all of their Turkish and Sephardi dishes. Levana didn’t help out in the kitchen, but she realized she could close her eyes and picture how the dishes like these stuffed tomatoes were made. 

Roasting cherry or grape tomatoes like this concentrates their flavor. It’s particularly wonderful when tomatoes aren’t at their peak and could use a boost. Serve them over rice, alongside a hunk of feta cheese and good bread, or in a pasta sauce. 

Annette Fromm’s grandmother Esther was from Ioannina in Northern Greece. “She was always in the kitchen and there were always pots of stuff cooking with tomatoes, onions, and garlic,” like this okra recipe.

Sasha Shor grew up in a Jewish-Russian home where pickles were always on the table, from cucumbers and tomatoes to cabbage and watermelon. After immigrating to Nashville and finding local pickles lacking, her family returned to their roots and made their own.

“Merk hzina” is Judeo-Arabic for “sad sauce” — or what we might call a “kitchen sink” salad, says Elle Brosh. Her family made this one with chopped tomatoes, peppers, celery, capers, and preserved lemon at the end of the week to use up everything. 

The base of this shakshuka is a long simmered sauce with tomatoes, peppers, and lots of garlic. To save yourself time in the morning, you can make it the day before and store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Time is a key ingredient in this jammy Moroccan tomato and pepper dip. But once it's made, it will hold well in the refrigerator for a few days, so you can make it in advance for a Shabbat dinner or a picnic.

“When I think of grandma Bobbie and food, gazpacho’s definitely the first thing that comes to my mind,” says content creator Eitan Bernath. Eitan adapted his grandmother’s version, upping the acidity with sherry vinegar. 

On Saturday nights, Sarina Roffé’s grandmother would make what she called “tomatoes and eggs,” or her version of shakshuka. She would scramble the whites into the saucy tomato base, leaving the golden yolks whole. 

When Naama Tamir was growing up, her grandmother Sarah prepared a drink the family calls delek (“fuel” in Hebrew) — a thick smoothie made of tomato, onion, celery, and sometimes apple. It became the inspiration for Naama’s bloody Miriam, which is a hearty riff on a bloody Mary.

When Jews lived in the Roman ghetto, they weren’t allowed to buy large fish, so they made do with small ones like anchovies. Even generations later, cooks like Sara Pavoncello’s grandparents used them in dishes like this hearty winter soup.

When we connect with Ashkenazi families for the JFS archive, stuffed cabbage recipes come up more than almost any other recipe. Every family has their own rendition with slight tweaks. this one is heavy on tomatoes.

Italo Camerino’s Roman Jewish family used to cook this spaghetti dish when he was growing up in Montreal. Use the simmering time for the sauce to make the pasta and a salad, too.