Tomato jelly

Patri, author of Sabores&Momentos , brings us a homemade recipe to enjoy for breakfast, appetizers and summer dinners. Preparing tomato jam couldn't be easier, and it's delicious to start the day with a good smile!

How wonderful, we are already finding the appreciated tomatoes from the beginning of the season, those tasty garden tomatoes that even we in our small urban gardens do wonderfully! This year I have 14 tomato plants in production in my garden and I have already begun to collect the first ecological jewels with an incredible flavor! I encourage you to take seeds from the tomatoes that you like the most this year and to set up your seedbeds next spring to have them next summer, at full capacity on your terraces, balconies or gardens!

So, if the summer gives you tomatoes, as well as gazpachos and salmorejos... Hit the homemade jam! It is very simple to prepare, it is not explained how it is not frequent to find it packaged on the shelves of our usual supermarkets... That is why I encourage you to prepare it at home for your pantry fund. You store it in these little jars by Luigi Bormioli and, in addition to being exquisite, they are beautiful when presented on the table.

This jam is one of the classics par excellence of summer when our garden tomatoes are at their best moment of texture and flavor. It is delicious and accompanied by some slices of toasted bread with goat cheese they are an incredible snack and at home we all love it. Do not stop trying them!

I love preparing my jams in my Le Creuset cocotte , as they distribute the heat very well and make the jam achieve a wonderful texture in less time than in normal pots.

As for the amounts of sugar, I am not one to put a lot and even less in the tomato, because we want the sugar to reduce the acidity and provide a touch of sweetness, but not make it cloying.

Come on, let's go for it!

Hermetic glass jars Luigi Bormioli.

Ingredients (for 2-3 jars)

• 1 Kg of ripe tomatoes (you can combine different varieties)
• 500g of brown sugar
• Juice of ½ lemon

Preparation

1. First we wash the tomatoes well and make a cross-shaped cut on the surface to blanch them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, so we can peel them more easily. To make the cut, the Opinel serrated knife can be of great help, since without squeezing the tomato you will cut the skin finely and in a single pass.
2. We will have to decide if we want to remove the pips or not. I personally don't care about them, once the jam is cooked they are completely imperceptible.
3. Once scalded, cut the tomatoes into four and put them in a pot or cocotte , add the sugar and the juice of half a lemon.
4. Put over high heat and as soon as it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium temperature and leave it for about 40-45 minutes while we stir, or until we see that it thickens slightly.
5. The temperature that the mixture acquires is high, so we will still see the somewhat liquid texture due to the effect of the sugar and the tomato juices, but when it cools it thickens, so we should not worry. To check if we have achieved the right point of cooking, we put a tablespoon of tomato jam on a cold plate, if it remains without spreading, it will be ready.
6. At this time the tomato will already be very undone, but if we still want it with a softer texture and without bumps, we simply pass it through the potato mill or Chinese strainer and we will have a smoother mixture.
7. Then we pack in our airtight jars , or if we prefer we can also pack in jars suitable for vacuum packaging so that we can keep them in the pantry.

Evolution Le Creuset round cocotte , Bérard wooden board and Luigi Bormioli hermetic glass jars .

cheats

• Make this jam in a heavy-bottomed pot to ensure that the heat is distributed evenly.
• Choose tomatoes at their optimum point of ripeness.
• You can use common white sugar, but I like brown sugar better for jams, it adds a touch of color and is also healthier!
• If you are interested in learning more, and not just about jams, but about all kinds of preserves, I recommend the book Conservas Naturales, by Mariano Bueno . It is most educational!

Making jam in a bread maker

• You can also prepare the jam in the Moulinex bread maker . If you do so, blanch the tomatoes in a pot as indicated in point 1 and, after peeling them, place them in the bread maker together with the sugar and lemon juice. You select the program "15 - Jams" and you will see that in a little less than an hour you will have it ready, and the blades will have been removed for you!