Recipe : Tomato Jam

You know I'm mad for cakes, and I don't make many savoury recipes, but this one just jumped out.  We love cheese, fresh bread and cold meats, and I thought that this recipe for Tomato Jam would go swimmingly with those things for a lazy weekend lunch.  This recipe is dead easy, and would be fab if you've got a glut tomatoes growing in the garden, or if you see them on spesh at the supermarket.

Some of the 1.25kg of Cherry Tomatoes sliced and ready for roasting.

The recipe calls for 1.25kg of Cherry Tomatoes, which are about the size of my thumb, and then it says to roast and peel them.  I was NOT looking forward to peeling hundreds of teensy tomatoes, but the skin came away so easily when they'd been roasted.

 

All roasted now, ready for peeling - so much peeling!

Okay, so let's cook, as usual my notes are in italics:-

Tomato Jam

• 1.25kg of cherry tomatoes (I think you could use any kind of tomatoes)
• Half cup of sugar
• Pinch of sea salt
• Half cup of lemon juice
• Quarter cup of chopped thyme, rosemary or basil
• 1 finely chopped red chilli

1. Preheat the oven to 165c (330f)
2. Cut the tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet covered with aluminium foil
3. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the tomatoes soften
4. Let them cool and then peel off most of the skin, leaving about a third with skin on for texture
5. Put the tomatoes in a heavy saucepan with sugar and salt and bring to a boil
6. Stirring constantly, boil the tomatoes briskly for 7-8 minutes (I didn't stir constantly and they probably boiled for about 15 minutes because I thought they looked too watery otherwise)
7. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, thyme and finely chopped red chilli (I didn't have any red chilli, I thought I did, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  I just ground a bunch of black pepper in to it instead)
8. Store in sterile jars in the refrigerator

The finished product - YUM!