In summer it can be difficult to come up with ideas to cope with a glut of tomatoes – especially if you grow your own. You can eat them fresh with salads, of course – tomato, mozzarella and avocado drizzled with good olive oil makes a delicious light Italian meal or a starter. You can also use up tomatoes by making plenty of rich tomato, garlic and basil sauce – ideal on pasta or in other Italian dishes such as lasagne or cannelloni. If you freeze the tomato sauce it can still be used a few weeks later, when your crop of tomatoes is finished.
How to Preserve Tomatoes
However, why not try preserving tomatoes by making this tomato jam? It’s not as strange as it seems: after all, tomatoes are a fruit – although we think of them as a vegetable. It’s a Mediterranean recipe from rural Spain, where people always grow enough tomatoes to bottle as a sauce for the winter months. This tomato jam recipe comes from Seasonal Spanish Food by Jose Pizarro and Vicky Bennison (pub. Kyle Cathie, £19.99, photographs by Emma Lee) and appears here with permission. Aside from its obvious use in casseroles and soups, the sauce is fantastic spread on toast for breakfast. This recipe for tomato jam is also a great accompaniment to cheeses. The jam is kept in the fridge – not in the storecupboard.
Tomato Jam – Recipe
Ingredients - Makes approx. 300ml
- 1kg ripe tomatoes
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g demerara sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- Peel of ½ lemon
- Peel of ½ orange
Method
- Use a sharp knife to make a cross in the skin on the base of each tomato. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the tomatoes from the pan and plunge them into iced water. Remove the skins and the stem. Chop the tomatoes into 6 to 8 slices, keeping the juice.
- Place the tomatoes and juice in a saucepan and leave to reduce over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Now add the rest of the ingredients and give everything a good stir. Don’t break up the cinnamon.
- Slowly cook the tomatoes for about 1 hour, stirring regularly. The end result should be a sticky, firm jam that is a shiny brown red colour. Remember to remove the cinnamon stick.
- This tomato jam keeps well in the fridge.
Rebecca Ford - I'm a UK based freelance travel writer and photographer - and the country I most like to visit is Italy. That's not just because of the ...
