Summer’s arrival brings out all kinds of fruit to simmer up into jam – including tomatoes.
Tomatoes as jam? Yes, indeed, and delicious it is, too. I love to make up small batches of tomato jam when lots of different tomato varieties appear in the markets. In the full swing of summer’s harvest, when prices are at rock bottom and big, fat tomatoes are lusciously mature, it’s time for stirring pots of tomato sauce like the one featured in this recipe. But just now, it’s fun to pick and choose the loveliest of the different young tomato crops for this very Mediterranean jam.
The sweet tomatoey taste is surprising, but the palate becomes used to it immediately. You can really appreciate the native sweetness of the fruit when it’s cooked like this. And the jam makes a delicious topping to toast first spread with labneh or any soft white cheese. Serve this as a snack, with coffee.
Sweet Tomato Jam
Yield: approximately 1/2 kilo – 1 lb. jam
Ingredients:
1 kg. – 2 lbs ripe tomatoes, any variety
1 – 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Peel and chop the tomatoes, scraping away as much of the seeds as you can.
In a large pan, heat water and sugar together stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice and zest.
Add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, without covering the pan. Lower heat to medium. Add the vanilla.
Cook until the mass is jammy and semi-solid, stirring once in a while.
Process as usual for canning, or allow to cool, and store in the refrigerator.
Enjoy!
Celebrate early tomatoes with a couple more of Green Prophet recipes:
Image of tomato jam via Shutterstock.
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